A Kauai Blog

Follow me deep into the interior of Kaua’i, to a place called Ili’ili’ula. This is another stream in the Wailua watershed, but nowhere as deep or as spectacular as the Wailua gorge—although I’ve heard rumors, so maybe I just didn’t go far enough…

I will not be giving any directions on how to get there, because I believe the area is private land within a forest reserve—so it is not fenced nor posted as such. Plus I’m trying to write “shorter” posts, or at least write them quicker, so I’ll just comment on these photos that I had already uploaded before. But I’ll still give you fair warning:

WARNING: crossing rivers, boulder-hopping, and swimming in waterfalls are dangerous activities. Rivers can flood quickly and may sweep you away easily or to trap you on the other side. Waterfalls sometimes carry rocks and branches with fatal consequences and the nearby cliffs are unstable. Hiking where there is no trail is also dangerous due to steep slopes and drop-offs. Exercise caution and proceed at your own risk.

title='' alt=''/> The trusty 4WD saves us a lot of walking and a little mud. I always like to think the car has fun in the puddles. I think that’s a stream actually, and it does look a little deep…

When we get out to walk, the trail is easy to find along the ditch. When the ditch goes through a tunnel you just have to follow the old maintenance road, though you have to find your way through the overgrown weeds. title='' alt=''/>

One appeal to the area is to get views you don’t get from elsewhere. This is the seldom seen backside (NNW face) of the Kilohana crater west of Lihue. In the background is Mt Haupu. The old Kauaians said the mists of Haupu foretell the rain—and if you pay attention, they were right—so it looks like we’re in for a sunny day.

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Sometimes, you can follow the ditch even when it goes into a tunnel. This very recent repair replaced an old aquaduct with a siphon. The black pipe is about 3 feet (1m) in diameter. I’m not sure which fields all this water is going to, Grove Farm isn’t doing much farming anymore around Lihue.

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And here’s the first reward, a weir that creates a big swimming hole on the Ili’ili’ula stream. Notice how the ditch goes straight into a tunnel behind a metal gate on the far side, and the access trail consists of steps carved into the rock.

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Hiking upstream, we’re in a lush, wet forest, with fern growing on the steep hillsides. I really like the polished lava rock in the foreground.

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After a while, the steep hillsides turn into sheer 60-ft (20 m) walls of rock that the stream has cut through. Since standing right in the shadow of Wai’ale’ale also foretells the rain, I didn’t dare go through this canyon for fear of a flash flood. title='' alt=''/>

title='' alt=''/> Just as well because on the way back down, we found an awesome natural slide rock. It seems like all the good natural stream slides are on private land on Kaua’i. Notice that we did have a long stick nearby for testing the depth of the landing pool.

We went exploring a bit further along the ditch trail, starting up those rock steps seen earlier. We didn’t find any more interesting streams, but we did find another old aquaduct. This is one end of an old, fallen-down aquaduct that carried the ditch across a small ravine, maybe 150 feet (50 m) wide—you can see the other end at the top of the photo. Unlike the other siphon that was new, this one seemed to have been bypassed long ago with a regular ditch and then a tunnel. title='' alt=''/>

Somewhere along the trail, it climbed up a bit over a ridge, and the mists parted long enough to get a shot even deeper into the interior. And indeed there are waterfalls up in there that we’ll have to come back and explore another day.

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Despite all my remarks, the place is not really a secret. If you want to go to Ili’ili’ula, wait for the Sierra Club to organize a group hike there (click the link for their quarterly hike schedule). They usually go once or twice per year, when the weather is a bit dryer.