Waimea – the Grand Canyon of the Pacific

Mark Twain came up with the suggested name for Waimea Canyon on the beautiful island of Kauai, and like its larger cousin, it is surprisingly difficult to capture the full grandeur of the scene in a photograph. I’ve stood at the edge of the original Grand Canyon and been overwhelmed by its size, but all my photos seem boring in comparison to the reality. For some reason, Waimea is also like that, and I have decided, over many visits, that the details rather than the overview work best. You can be the judge!

The canyon starts almost at the ocean, which makes its size and depth more dramatic to behold. Waimea the town is small (as are most Kauai towns!) but has a small wooden pier that can make a great sunset image – in this case with a slow shutter speed to blur out the waves and surf on the edge of the sand.

Almost immediately you start driving upwards, sometimes into the clouds and my first view of the canyon itself, with its distinctive red rocks, can be seen on as the clouds start to break to let the sun through:

The canyon stretches for 10 miles from the ocean with a road with multiple official (and many unofficial) overlooks as you rise 3500 feet above the sea level. It is around one mile wide, although it has numerous side canyons created by streams over the centuries. This next image is probably the best I have created that show the size of the canyon as you reach the top:

Many times, the clouds and mists drift over the slopes of the hills, creating a magical view of the rocks and trees far below:

But one of the best views you can see are from a helicopter tour. I’ve written about the one I took with Jack Harter in their open-door helicopter, and I must say the weather that day was magnificent! Here is one view as we rose above the edge of the canyon from the side and saw the dark rocks in front of us:

And then you see the view down the canyon towards the ocean:

But the views from the overlooks can be just as dramatic. Here we have the Waipo’o waterfall cascading down the sides of the gorge:

And views down into the depths of the canyon can be rewarding. This is more of an abstract image with diagonals and shadows that illustrates just how hard plants have to struggle to survive in this sort of environment:

Your journey up the road by the canyon doesn’t just stop when the canyon ends – it continues past a visitor center and picnic area and continues to climb to the top of the mountain where a couple of overlooks and some hikes give you one of the best views in the Pacific – the view over the Kalalau valley:

At one time there was a grand plan to build a road from this overlook over the mountain top and swamp to meet up with the road that is perhaps only 10 miles away at Kee’e beach and create a “ring road” around the island. However, the machinery brought up to start this road sunk into the swamp (and may be still there?) and the plans were abandoned. And so, there is nothing else to do but to turn around and drive back down to the coast where the adventure began! It is always worth looking behind you though – you never know what you will see!

You can find prints of my work in my Pictorem store, with free shipping to the US and Canada and also in my Pixels store with many other products including beach towels, jigsaw puzzles or even clothing adorned with my work! Both have a 30-day money back guarantee.

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