Hawaii
'Opaeka'a Falls
109 mi from Honolulu · ~3.2 hr drive
151ft tall
≈ 46 m
≈ 46 m
'Opaeka'a Falls is a named waterfall in Hawaii — a substantial cascade dropping 151 feet, about 109 miles from Honolulu, HI. Full visit details below.
- State
- Hawaii
- Nearest city
- Honolulu, HI · 109 mi · ~3.2 hr drive
- Height
- 151 ft (46 m)
- Coordinates
- 22.0482°, -159.3620°
From Wikipedia: ʻŌpaekaʻa Falls is a waterfall located on the ʻŌpaekaʻa Stream in Wailua River State Park on the eastern side of the Hawaiian island of Kauai. It is a 151-foot (46 m) waterfall that flows over basalt from volcanic eruptions millions of years ago. Below the ridge down into the ravine through which the water falls can be seen the vertical dikes of basalt that cut through the horizontal Koloa lava flows. The name "ʻŌpaekaʻa" means rolling shrimp, "ʻopae" being Hawaiian for "shrimp," and "kaʻa" for "rolling". The name dates back to days when the native freshwater shrimp Atyoida bisulcata were plentiful in the stream and were seen rolling and tumbling down the falls and into the churning waters at the fall's base. Excerpt from the Wikipedia article on ʻŌpaekaʻa Falls, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Visiting 'Opaeka'a Falls
The exact location is at 22.0482°, -159.3620° — open in Google Maps for driving directions from your location.
Before you go: check current conditions with the appropriate land manager — state parks department, U.S. Forest Service ranger district, or National Park Service unit. Trail access, parking, water levels, and seasonal closures all vary. Several waterfalls in our database are seasonal and may run dry between mid-summer and the next rainy season.
If you've visited 'Opaeka'a Falls and have current notes (parking situation, dog policy, seasonality, kid-friendliness), tell us at /contact — we update pages as we learn more.
Other waterfalls within 30 miles
Sources
Location and tag data for 'Opaeka'a Falls comes from OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL license) ; the Wikipedia article linked above provides additional history. We do not modify the underlying data — this page presents what's already publicly recorded. To suggest corrections, see our methodology page or contact us.