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Save some energy for that monumental climb back up the road, as you must eventually return the way you came.

Waipio stories

Waipio Valley’s fertile and beautiful acres are the site of many old Hawaiian legends and the home of many of Hawaii’s heroes. The god Lono found his earthly bride here. Kane and Kanaloa once dwelt here. According to one story, the entrance from the Big Island to the underworld—where the spirits of the dead went after they were banished from the land of the living—was in Waipio Valley. It’s said that this entrance could still be found until this century, when a sugar company plowed it over while planting part of the valley in cane. Movies depicting tropical paradises often use Waipio Valley for an “Eden”—for example, “Dryland” in Waterworld.

Waipio Valley was once famous for its agricultural productivity. Reportedly, the output of Waipio Valley could sustain the entire population of the Big Island even if the crops and livestock failed everywhere else. Yet over the past 60 years, Waipio has gradually been deserted. Probably the greatest single blow to Waipio’s once-self-sufficient lifestyle was the great tsunami (tidal wave) of 1946. No one was killed in Waipio, but the tsunami, which also devastated Hilo, destroyed buildings and fields and terrified many people into leaving. Most of them never returned.