Ryan's Chang: Raw Hawaiian Power

On Sunday we woke up really early to meet our friends Baron, Cory, and Laura. Cory suggested, when Katie and I were planning this trip, that they would be able to fly up one day to do two hikes with us not in any guide book. Through internet research, looking at topographic maps, and some word of mouth he figured out two fairly good hikes for the day.

At 5:30 am I started to cook breakfast. We had some sausage eggs and toast and the night before some spaghetti to get some energy into our bodies before these two hikes. We left the house around 6:30 am to meet them at 8 am. (If you don't know Hana, know that it takes you a while to get to somewhere you want to be because of all the turns and one lane roads.) Luckily that morning there wasn't too many cars on the road and we ended up waiting for them for a good 45 minutes. We explored the area a little and tried to find the trail head but it was hard to tell where the trail would start. We were looking for a waterfall that doesn't flow in the upper regions of the mountain, it only flows near the ocean. Around 8:15 am Cory's group pulls up and we headed to the trail head together in the cars.

I put on my tabis and crampons and loaded my dry bag with only a camera and one Nalgene bottle. I carried my tripod on my back and started off on the trail. After 30 mins of walking through a jungle with muddy feet we made our way down into a stream bed. When we hit the stream bed Cory pointed out how clear the water is and how many native fish there was in the stream. It was pretty cool to see the water so clear and the stream so healthy. In my time hiking in Hawaii I've never seen a stream so clear and teeming with native fish.

After about an hour of rock hopping up this stream we came around a bend and that's when I saw it. The waterfall was blasting! From a distance there was some mist hitting me. I stood up on a rock and took pictures from afar with the group heading towards this monstrous waterfall. It was pretty damn amazing. I got off the rock and quickly made my way to the base of the waterfall with Gopro in hand. I got to the base and saw that the pool was giant and had lots of waves from the power of the water falling off the cliff. Another thing I noticed was that the water was blue! You NEVER see a waterfall this strong and powerful with the pool being blue. Usually the waterfalls are murky and brown with lots of sediment. The falls was about 200 ft tall and POWERFUL. We hung out at the base for a good 30 mins. I snapped a few shots with DSLR, this by far is/was the hardest waterfall to photograph up close with the exception of Ko'olaupoko Chutes. The power of the waterfall in the gulch combined with the wind made shooting a long exposure futile with drops of water always falling on the lens. Cory and Baron brought some inner tubes to float around at a secondary pool.

On our way out near the ocean we explored the coast line a little. The coast had black rocks instead of sand. We looked in a cave and the cave didn't go too far back. After the coastline we went back to the cars and had to jet to our next hike.