Kauai is the oldest of the large Hawaiian islands. It is the top of an enormous volcano rising from the ocean floor. With lava flows dated to about 5 million years ago. Roughly 4 million years ago, while Kauai
was still erupting almost continuously, a portion of the island
collapsed. This collapse formed a depression which then filled with lava
flows. In the millions of years since, rainwater from the slopes of Mount Waiʻaleʻale
have eroded Waimea Canyon along one edge of the collapse. On the east
side of the canyon, the cliff walls are built from thick lava flows that
pooled in the depression. Over time, the exposed basalt has weathered
from its original black to bright red.
The spectacular site is also known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. The canyon is ten miles long and up to 3,000 feet deep. Waimea is Hawaiian for “reddish water”, a reference to the erosion of the canyon’s red soil. The canyon was formed by a deep incision of the Waimea River arising from the extreme rainfall on the island’s central peak, Mount Waiʻaleʻale, among the wettest places on earth.
No single sketch can capture the scale and grandeur of the place. On this vacation, I shot video as well as sketching. The tightly edited video offers a quick glimpse into the island’s beauty. Digital storage devices have changed since I edited the video so I need to do a digital transfer if I want to preserve the moving images. That is one good thing about sketches. They can always be seen as long as they aren’t destroyed by fire, earthquake, or a meteor strike