Akaka Falls State Park

Akaka Falls State Park

Akaka Falls on Kolekole Stream
Map showing the location of Akaka Falls State Park

Location in Hawaii

Location Honomu, Hawaiʻi, United States
Coordinates 19°51′14″N 155°9′16″W / 19.85389°N 155.15444°W / 19.85389; -155.15444Coordinates: 19°51′14″N 155°9′16″W / 19.85389°N 155.15444°W / 19.85389; -155.15444
Area 11 miles (18 km)
Governing body Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources

ʻAkaka Falls State Park is a state park on Hawaiʻi Island, in the U.S. state of Hawaii.

The park is about 11 miles (18 km) north from Hilo, west of Honomū off the Hawaii Belt Road (route 19) at the end of Hawaii Route 220. It includes ʻAkaka Falls, a 442 feet (135 m) tall waterfall. ʻAkaka in the Hawaiian language means "A rent, split, chink, separation; to crack, split, scale".[1] The accessible portion of the park lies high on the right shoulder of the deep gorge into which the waterfall plunges, and the falls can be viewed from several points along a loop trail through the park. Also visible from this trail is Kahūnā Falls.

Trail in park, 1959

Local folklore describes a stone here called Pōhaku a Pele that, when struck by a branch of lehua ʻāpane, will call the sky to darken and rain to fall.[2] Lehua ʻāpane or ʻōhiʻa ʻāpane is an ʻōhiʻa tree (Metrosideros polymorpha) with dark red blossoms.

ʻAkaka Falls is located on Kolekole Stream. A large stone in the stream about 70 feet (21 m) upstream of the falls is called Pōhaku o Kāloa.[2]

Akaka Falls video

Wildlife

The ʻoʻopu ʻalamoʻo is an endemic Hawaiian species of goby fish that spawns in stream above the waterfall, but matures in the sea. These fish have a suction disk on their bellies that allows them to cling to the wet rocks behind and adjacent to the waterfall. Using this disk, they climb back up to the stream when it is time to spawn [3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Pukui, Mary Kawena, Samuel H. Elbert, 1986. Hawaiian Dictionary. The University of Hawaiʻi Press, Honolulu. 572 pp. (ISBN 0-8248-0703-0)
  2. 1 2 Pukui, Mary Kawena, Samuel H. Elbert, and Esther T. Mookini. 1974. Place Names of Hawaiʻi. The University of Hawaiʻi Press, Honolulu. 289 pp. (ISBN 0-8248-0524-0)
  3. ↑ http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57619422-1/where-badass-fish-climb-rock-cliffs..-with-their-mouths/

External links


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