Overview
About Wailua Falls
Why stop
- An impressive waterfall with a bridge view that takes no hike
Heads up
- Crowds and limited roadside stopping space can make a quick stop awkward
Map
Where it is
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Road to Hana Tour Guide
Your drive to Wailua Falls, narrated.
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Road to Hana. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Road to Hana audio tourRecorded for this place
Wailua Falls from the Bridge“Wailua Falls is coming up, with an eighty-foot cascade dropping down a dark, leafy cliff beside the road.”
Plays as you drive up to Wailua Falls in the Parkwolf Road to Hana Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
- Where the Lava Went
- The Bat in the Evening Sky
- Kīpahulu’s Coast and Waterfalls
- Kukui: The Tree That Gave Light
- 48 audio storiesacross Road to Hana’s roads, triggered by GPS as you drive
- Wildlife heatmapsfor Hawaiian Monk Seal, Green Sea Turtle, Frigatebird, and 13 more
- Works offlinemaps, 13 trails, 39 places, and audio download before you lose signal
- CarPlay readysimple controls built for the drive
“Fantastic app with many points of information… It’s great to just turn on while you’re driving and it gives you an audio tour of the national Park. We love it!!!!”
Guide
More about Wailua Falls
What it isWailua Falls is an approximately 80-foot waterfall on Honolewa Stream, just beyond mile marker…
Wailua Falls is an approximately 80-foot waterfall on Honolewa Stream, just beyond mile marker 45 on the Hana Highway toward Kīpahulu. It drops down a dark rock wall into a plunge pool, with dense tropical greenery all around it. The bridge-side view is right by the road, so you can see the falls without adding a hike to your drive.
Keep the stop on the roadsideThis is a quick-view stop, not a visit to plan around a walk to the pool.
This is a quick-view stop, not a visit to plan around a walk to the pool. Tour vans and crowds can make the roadside stopping space feel tight, and reports about how much parking there is don't agree. The bridge view is the reliable payoff; whether visitors may descend to the basin isn't clear, so don't count on getting down to the water.
A different stream than the nameDespite the name, the waterfall is on Honolewa Stream, not Wailua Stream.
Despite the name, the waterfall is on Honolewa Stream, not Wailua Stream. The sources I found don't explain how the name came about, so there's no need to invent a story for it.
Rain changes the showRain feeds the falls, so its flow varies.
Rain feeds the falls, so its flow varies. It can look much stronger after wet weather and run lower after a dry stretch; don't expect the same volume every time.
Frame the whole green wallThe cascade is narrow against a dark, leafy cliff.
The cascade is narrow against a dark, leafy cliff. From the bridge, leave some of that green wall around the water so the height reads in the photo; a tight crop can make the drop look smaller than it is.
Wildlife
Wildlife in Road to Hana
10 sightingsHawaiian Monk SealMost seen around 11 AMSighting map
127 sightingsGreen Sea TurtleMost seen around 5 PMSighting map
86 sightingsFrigatebirdMost seen around noonSighting map
17 sightingsRed-footed BoobyMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
73 sightingsNene (Hawaiian Goose)Most seen around 6 AMSighting map
58 sightingsHawaiian StiltMost seen around 8 AMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Road to Hana. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
