Hawaii's Little Grand Canyon -- Post 1

It is unbelievable that I am still catching up with the Hawaii photos.  Today I'll post pictures from my drive on the west side of Kauai.  There is an incredible canyon called Wilemea Canyon, that reminds me of the Grand Canyon.  Two weeks before I arrived, the Wilemea area had an unusually heavy rainfall.  Normally the canyon only gets 10-15 inches of rain a year.  However, in this one storm they received more than half the annual rainfall.  Thus, everything was greener than normal.  What is also interesting, is that less than 20 miles away -- the current rim of the canyon receives over 500 inches of rain a year.

As I drove down the highway the follows the southwestern coast of Kauai, I noticed all the lava formed domes with basaltic outcrops.

 

Then I took a right hand turn and followed the highway that takes you from sea level to more than 5,000 feet in less than 15 miles.  The photos below are of the town Wilemea.

 

 

One of the farming areas is shown below.

 

 And then there is the canyon....

 

At the overlook, I noticed these cool eroded basaltic boulders.

Notice the hexagonal shape that is all that remains from the basaltic columns.

The drive was a twisty, turn-filled challenge.

I stopped at multiple overlooks to get some great photos.

Although the lava flow looks fresh, it actually flowed over five million years ago.

Again, the picture below looks sedimentary -- but it shows different lava flows.

 

Continued tomorrow...