The double falls at the end of Maalo Road made famous by television, pouring off the South Fork Wailua and swelling into a single curtain after Kauai rain.
November through April
Big water window
in a typical year
Rain fed
What drives it
South Fork Wailua River
Live USGS
Data on this page
gauge 16060000
Hawaii State Parks
Managed by
their rules govern
Trail status, closures and safety rules belong to each falls' managing agency, named and linked on every page.
The season
What fills Wailua Falls, and when
Wailua Falls carries a real river rather than a hillside stream, so it never quits; what the rain decides is its shape, from twin plumes in dry weeks to one wall of whitewater after storms. Winter through spring is the reliably big season. The rain-fed label and the shape-shifting description are ours; the state park page lists the falls among the park's scenic vistas.
Typical best flow: November through April
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What the agency itself says
Lush river valley with riverboat cruise (fee charged) to Fern Grotto, an unusual fern-covered cave set in a tropical garden; scenic vistas of attractive waterfalls 'Opaeka'a Falls and Wailua Falls) and the Wailua River Valley.
Gauge: USGS 16060000 SF Wailua River nr Lihue Kauai HI, on the same South Fork Wailua River nearby; position relative to the falls not independently confirmed. The gauge reads the river, not the brink of the falls, so treat it as the trend line rather than a turnstile.
Source: USGS Water Services (National Water Information System). Instantaneous values and daily statistics services. U.S. Geological Survey data are works of the United States Government and are in the public domain. Gauge verified 2026-08-27.
Rain-fed falls carry the color of their watershed: Blackwater Falls runs amber with tannin from spruce and hemlock bogs upstream, and its volume tracks the last month of Appalachian weather. “Blackwater Falls (15437499241)” by Benjamin Smith from United States, CC BY 2.0
Getting there
Access, in the agency's words and ours
The overlook sits at the end of Maalo Road near Lihue within Wailua River State Park, open daily with the park's posted hours, and the February 2026 fee regime for non-residents applies. There is no sanctioned trail below the overlook.
The reliable big-water window is November through April. Wailua Falls carries a real river rather than a hillside stream, so it never quits; what the rain decides is its shape, from twin plumes in dry weeks to one wall of whitewater after storms. Winter through spring is the reliably big season. The rain-fed label and the shape-shifting description are ours; the state park page lists the falls among the park's scenic vistas.
This page reads the USGS gauge on South Fork Wailua River (SF Wailua River nr Lihue Kauai HI, on the same South Fork Wailua River nearby; position relative to the falls not independently confirmed) live in your browser, and shows the latest flow next to the median USGS publishes for today's date, so you can see where today sits in the year. The gauge reads the river, not the brink, so treat it as the trend rather than a turnstile.
No; the South Fork keeps it running in every season. Storm weeks merge the twin drops into one and stain the pool brown; the postcard twin-ribbon version belongs to settled weather.
Wailua River State Park (Hawaii DLNR Division of State Parks). The overlook sits at the end of Maalo Road near Lihue within Wailua River State Park, open daily with the park's posted hours, and the February 2026 fee regime for non-residents applies. There is no sanctioned trail below the overlook. Trail status, closures and safety rules are theirs, and their page is linked on this one; nothing here overrides what they publish.
Yosemite Falls in May, running on snowmelt that will be gone by late summer. The National Park Service tells visitors the falls can be dry by August, which is why every falls page here starts from its watershed. “Tourists below Yosemite Falls (39832011431)” by Mike McBey, CC BY 2.0
Kauai's easiest great falls: a roadside overlook above the Wailua River valley, with the falls splitting and rejoining across its basalt lip as the rain dictates.
Places to stay