Rainbow (Waiānuenue) Falls is a

waterfall A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in seve ...

located in

Hilo, Hawaii Hilo () is the largest settlement in and the county seat of Hawaii County, Hawaiʻi, United States, which encompasses the Island of Hawaiʻi, and is a census-designated place (CDP). The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 census. I ...

. It is tall and almost in diameter. The falls are part of the Hawai'i State Parks. There is no fee to see the falls. At Rainbow (Waiānuenue) Falls, the

Wailuku River The Wailuku River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 28, 2011 water course on the Island of Hawaii in the Hawaiian Islands. It is the longest river in Hawai'i an ...

rushes into a large pool below. The gorge is blanketed by lush, dense nonnative tropical rainforest and the turquoise-colored pool is bordered by beautiful, although nonnative, wild

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

. Monstera is also in abundance. The falls are accessible via Wailuku River State Park, Waiānuenue Avenue, coordinates , and are best seen from the park's viewing platform. Known in the

Hawaiian language Hawaiian (', ) is a critically endangered Polynesian language of the Austronesian language family, originating in and native to the Hawaiian Islands. It is the native language of the Hawaiian people. Hawaiian, along with English, is an offi ...

as Waiānuenue (literally "rainbow water"), the falls flows over a natural

lava cave A lava cave is any cave formed in volcanic rock, though it typically means caves formed by volcanic processes, which are more properly termed volcanic caves. Sea caves, and other sorts of erosional and crevice caves, may be formed in volcanic rock ...

, the mythological home to

Hina Hina may refer to: People and deities * Hina (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Hina (goddess), the name assigned to a number of Polynesian deities. * Hina (singer), of 2021 group Lightsum Other u ...

, an ancient Hawaiian goddess. Rainbow Falls derives its name from the fact that, on sunny mornings around 10am, rainbows can be seen in the mist thrown up by the waterfall.

References

External links

Wailuku River
state park official website State parks of Hawaii Waterfalls of Hawaii (island) Hilo, Hawaii {{Hawaii-geo-stub

See also

References

External links