ʻAkaka Falls State Park

Akaka Falls State Park is a state park on Hawaii Island, in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The park is about 11 mi north of Hilo, west of Honomū off the Hawaii Belt Road (Route 19) at the end of Hawaii Route 220. It includes its namesake Akaka Falls, a 442 ft tall waterfall. Akaka is named after Chief 'Akaka-o-ka-nī'au-oi'o-i-ka-wao, grandson of Kūlanikapele and Kīakalohia. The accessible portion of the park lies high on the right shoulder of the deep gorge into which the waterfall plunges, and the falls can be viewed from several points along a loop trail through the park. Also visible from this trail is Kahūnā Falls, a 300 ft tall waterfall, and several smaller cascades.

Local folklore describes a stone here called Pōhaku a Pele that, when struck by a branch of lehua āpane, will call the sky to darken and rain to fall. Lehua āpane or ōhia āpane is an ōhia tree (Metrosideros polymorpha) with dark red blossoms.

Akaka Falls is located on Kolekole Stream. A large stone in the stream about 70 ft upstream of the falls is called Pōhaku o Kāloa.



Wildlife
The oopu alamoo is an endemic Hawaiian species of goby fish that spawns in stream above the waterfall, but matures in the sea. These fish have a suction disk on their bellies that allows them to cling to the wet rocks behind and adjacent to the waterfall. Using this disk, they climb back up to the stream when it is time to spawn. A shrimp called the ōpaekalaole has also evolved to climb Akaka Falls and live in Kolekole Stream.