The 400 foot wall of water at the end of Haleakala's Pipiwai Trail, past the bamboo forest in the Kipahulu District beyond Hana.
November through April
Big water window
in a typical year
Rain fed
What drives it
Pipiwai Stream
Live USGS
Data on this page
gauge 16501200
NPS Haleakala
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 Waimoku Falls, and when
Pipiwai Stream drains Haleakala's wet east flank, so Waimoku swells with the winter rain season and after any Hana-coast storm, thinning during dry spells; the rain-fed label is ours. The four mile round trip through the bamboo forest is the point as much as the falls, and the Park Service's flash flood warning below is the sentence to take seriously in this drainage.
Typical best flow: November through April
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What the agency itself says
Waimoku Falls viewing area brings visitors to the end of Pīpīwai Trail after two miles (one way). This hike to this area gains 800 feet in elevation.
Gauge: USGS 16501200 Oheo Gulch at dam near Kipahulu Maui HI, downstream of the falls in the same drainage, above the coastal pools. 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 Pipiwai Trail gains 800 feet over two miles one way to the falls viewing area, per the Park Service, from the Kipahulu District 12 miles past Hana. Kipahulu is remote, with emergency help at least an hour away, and the famous Pools of Oheo below remain closed to water entry.
The reliable big-water window is November through April. Pipiwai Stream drains Haleakala's wet east flank, so Waimoku swells with the winter rain season and after any Hana-coast storm, thinning during dry spells; the rain-fed label is ours. The four mile round trip through the bamboo forest is the point as much as the falls, and the Park Service's flash flood warning below is the sentence to take seriously in this drainage.
This page reads the USGS gauge on Pipiwai Stream (Oheo Gulch at dam near Kipahulu Maui HI, downstream of the falls in the same drainage, above the coastal pools) 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.
It narrows in dry stretches but rarely stops; the east Maui rain machine sees to that. The Park Service's concern runs the other way: flash floods and rockfall, which is why wading anywhere in this stream system is a bad idea.
Haleakala National Park, Kipahulu District (National Park Service). The Pipiwai Trail gains 800 feet over two miles one way to the falls viewing area, per the Park Service, from the Kipahulu District 12 miles past Hana. Kipahulu is remote, with emergency help at least an hour away, and the famous Pools of Oheo below remain closed to water entry. Trail status, closures and safety rules are theirs, and their page is linked on this one; nothing here overrides what they publish.
In their own words: "Flash floods and sudden rock falls can occur at any time! Entry and wading in the streams is not recommended. Always stay out of closed areas." That sentence is Haleakala National Park, Kipahulu District (National Park Service)'s, quoted verbatim, and their page is the place to check before you go.
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.
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.
Places to stay