Waimea Canyon, Hawaii's
Grand Canyon of the Pacific
I ran ran up
to the rim at Waimea Canyon Lookout and tore off my sunglasses,
exclaiming, "It's Impossible, it's too red to be real!"
The multi-armed canyon below is like an over-amped Grand Canyon,
made over with a distinctly tropic palate. There are flocks of
speck-like white birds wheeling in the canyon depths far below
your feet. This gorgeous red dirt has literally created a local
phenomenon of a business on Kauai, which is headquartered less
than 15 miles from this spot. They produce gorgeous t-shirts dyed
with the essence of the red dirt you see in this picture.....Check
out "Red Dirt Shirts" at this link.
The panorama
of the nearly 3,500 ft deep canyon begins on the left looking
almost due north. In the right center of the image, one of 5,148
ft Mt. Wai'ale'ale's perpetual rain storms moves down a canyon
from the Alaka'i Swamp. Up there, only 11 miles away, it rains
500 inches per year, down in the canyon bottom less than 25 inches.
Where we stand here, it is warm and dry, scrubby trees and red
soil lending a desert feel to the land.
(click the scroll
bar on the bottom of your page to move the image to the right).....................The panorama ends on
the right looking southeast at the Pacific Ocean over 3,000 ft
below-- down there near the mouth of the Waimea River is where
Captain Cook first "found" the Hawaiian Islands in 1778.
Page
last reviewed 6/18/2020