After a restful night's sleep and a yummy breakfast, we left the condo headed for the Waipio Valley Lookout. On the way through Waimea, we stopped at McDonalds for a Diet Coke and a halfcut tea. It felt like a special treat! 

While I was driving, we talked about the manta rays. What a great night! Our conversation lead us to the Sea Quest Dolphin Encounter. When we were planning the trip, we talked about doing a dolphin swim.

After the marketing presentation on March 28th, we went with the Night Manta Experience which was AMAZING! Should we reconsider the Sea Quest Dolphin Encounter? We'd have to think about this some more. 

From Paniolo Greens, it took about an hour to get to the lookout. Waipio Valley is located on the northern Hamakau coast and is the birth place of Hawaii's greatest King - Kamehameha.

There wasn't room in the parking lot so we parked on the street and followed the steep path down to the lookout.

Another tourist offered to take our picture. 

Surrounded by 2,000 ft cliffs, the valley is about a mile wide and over five miles deep. The fertile valley used to be home to thousands of native Hawaiian until 1946 when a devastating tsunami sweep waves back through the valley. Now there are less than 100 residents.

According to the displays, no one should go to the valley unless they are invited by one of the residents. We overheard a woman ask her husband if he'd like to walk down to the valley and he said he didn't want to walk back. No kidding! It looked like it would be a steep walk and the road was only passable with a four wheel drive vehicle.

At the Waipio Valley Lookout, there were picnic tables and public restrooms. I added it to the list of things that my mom and dad could do when we were gone.

When we left, we followed Route 240 back to HI-19 and then made a right turn on Route 250. It was one of the few roads that we had not explored so we decided to check it out!