Temple Valley Waterfalls During A Tropical Storm

On a typical day, the waterfall chutes at the base of the Koolau Mountain Range on Windward Oahu are dry or barely flowing. Significant rainfall is required to create these waterfalls, where subsequent viewing is commonly done from afar. During the hurricane season in Hawaii (~June-November), the Hawaiian Islands are frequented by tropical storms which lose their intensity as they deflect towards cooler ocean waters north of the equator. The large volumes of rainfall that are delivered by these intense storms cannot be buffered quickly enough by the islands’ watersheds, and quickly runs off as surface water into the ocean.

Since the national weather service / NOAA had a highly accurate forecast to when Hurricane Gill (degraded to Tropical Storm Gill) would arrive on Oahu and how much rain to expect, “Waterfall Hunter” Baron Yamamoto and I were eager to see some of these dry chutes up close and filled with water. Phone calls were made out to the crew (Katie, Ryan, Dave and Agnes) at 630am to meet on the windward side ASAP.

We started our journey in an accessible rocky stream bed near the back of the valley.

The stream here doesn’t usually flow much, but with the frequent downpours over the past 12 hours, it was really moving!

For safer scrambling on the slick rocks, we all had felt-bottomed footwear, and supplemental crampon microspikes when needed.

After about 20 minutes of walking in/along the stream bed, we could see white clouds of water through the riparian zone.

This waterfall totally blew my mind, and my hat off. Not literally, but the wind getting generated from the falling water in the narrow chute made getting close a challenge. We had to yell at each other to communicate. Here, Baron withstands the force of the wind gusts and points to the source of what he calls, “Majah Rajah…” It’s pronounced, “mehjah rehjah” for those who aren’t familiar with the term (*cough* Lynne Honda, lol).

Anyhoo, the next waterfall chute that formed was another ~30 minutes away, and was also hidden by much of the trees and bushes in the riparian zone.

Not as much volume and wind as the first one, but still impressive nonetheless.

AND this one had two “visible” tiers to it. Incredible stuff…

Hiking to the 3rd waterfall chute took a little more time, as we had to contour up another overgrown tributary in the valley. Several smaller waterfalls impeded our progress, as we had climb up around them.

Through the trees, we could see that this one had about as much water as the second waterfall, though it was much taller than the first two…

…at least from the section that we could see.

Thinking we’d only have time to see three of the waterfalls, this smaller, fourth one was a surprise. Unfortunately, I put away my camera and stopped taking photos on the way there, as it was near the route we were planning taking back out to where we started. What an epic day, with a bunch of some of the most adventurous people I know. Great times guys!

As mentioned earlier, the waterfall chutes here are dry on a typical day. When heavy rainfall occurs here, they may often flow with great force, bringing down loose debris (rocks, branches and even logs) with it. Therefore, if attempting this type of activity, please be aware of such dangers when hiking in this type of weather and knowledgeable on what to do if caught mid-stream channel when a flash flood hits. This particular area doesn’t have as large of a drainage system as other watersheds in Hawaii, so it wasn’t likely that a wall of water would come rushing down to sweep us away. However, this can easily happen in other areas during storms like this. Be responsible and know when you are in over your head. There is no shame in backtracking and bailing out.

Aloha and mahalo nui for visiting… Come back again soon!