Waipoo Falls, Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii Photo Print

"Waipoo Falls, Waimea Canyon, Kauai, Hawaii" by Catherine Sherman. Two-tiered Waipo'o Falls drops 800 feet into Waimea Canyon on the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands. Waimea Canyon, also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, is a large canyon, approximately ten miles (16 km) long and up to 3,000 feet (900 m) deep, located on the western side of Kauaʻi in the Hawaiian Islands of the United States. Waimea is Hawaiian for "reddish water", a reference to the erosion of the canyon's red soil. Extreme rainfall on the island's central peak, Mount Waiʻaleʻale, forms the Waimea River, which cuts the canyon. The area is among the wettest places on earth. The canyon has a unique geologic history. It was formed not only by the steady process of erosion, but also by a catastrophic collapse of the volcano that created Kauaʻi.