Jeep Day

On Jeep day, we rented two 4x4 Jeeps to drive down into Waipio Valley.  It's a gorgeous valley on the Northeast corner of the island, and its also where King Kamehameha hid until he was 17 yrs. old and ready to reign.  We couldn't take the van because all non 4 wheel drive vehicles are prohibited in the valley.  The road down descends 1000 feet in just a mile to the bottom of the valley.

At the top of the valley. This the coast of it lined with a black sand beach. 

 Driving down into the valley on this tiny little road that wasn't even wide enough for two cars. 

 Once you're down in the valley, the river from the waterfall crosses the road several times.  We kept sending Maurice out to do a depth check and make sure we could cross the road.

Random pack of skinny horses that walked right passed us.  A local said they're wild, and stay near the hikers looking for food.

In this pic, Maurice and Dirk are standing on the black sand beach facing the coast.  Behind them you can see how far back the valley goes.  Follow the river behind them and you will hit the waterfall that we ended up hiking to. 

Silly tourists.  We set off for the waterfall thinking we could

tote a baby along on Kai's back. 

This was the most tame part of the hike.  It got to the point where we had to climb rocks, swim through a reservoir, a scale cliffs.  When we  got to the reservoir and realized what we were in for, we decided to send the baby back.  Aaron volunteered to take Katie & Oliver back, so we dumped all our backpacks with them and took nothing but the waterproof camera.  

After about 2 hours we made it! It's not a huge waterfall, but its the highest in Hawaii at 1,400 feet. 

 It really was beautiful. 

  We had it all to ourselves too.

 Inside the waterfall. 

 Timer shot of the climbing crew.

Notice Maurice's makeover?

 I love these shots.  Katie is pointing to the waterfall that we were probably

 swimming under right at that moment.  

 Aaron drinking the falls. 

That day was my most favorite day of the whole trip.  I loved the drive down, I loved the jungle in the valley, I loved the challenge of the hike, the falls, everything.  It felt like a real Hawaiian adventure.

On the way home we stopped at Akaka Falls just before the sun set. This was as close as we could get to it though, so we weren't super impressed.