Waipio Valley Road

Seeing is believing...... more

by Susan Rissi Tregoning

Title

Waipio Valley Road

Artist

Susan Rissi Tregoning

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Seeing is believing...
I had read about how steep and dangerous Waipio Valley Road is. It’s classified as the steepest road of its length in the United States. I know it felt steep riding in the back of a 4WD van but this image really shows it.

I shot this image from the opposite side of the valley. That diagonal curvy bare line between the trees is Waipio Valley Road.

Waipio Valley is located along the Hamakua Coast on the northeast shore of the Big Island of Hawaii, this valley is the largest and most southern of the seven valleys on the windward side of the Kohala Mountains. Waipio valley is a mile wide at the coastline and almost six miles deep. On both sides of the valley the cliffs reach almost 2000 feet in height!

Waipio Valley is very difficult to access. A steep one lane road leads down into the valley from a lookout point located on the top of the southern wall of the valley. The road gains 800 vertical feet in a half mile at a 25% average grade, with steeper grades in sections. This is a paved public road but it is open only to 4 wheel drive vehicles and it is the steepest road of its length in the United States.

Copyright 2018 Susan Rissi Tregoning

Uploaded

January 7th, 2018