Places on Kauai: Maniniholo Dry Cave

Basic Information

• Name: Maniniholo Dry Cave
• Where: Haena Beach Park, Kauai
• Hours: Anytime
• Cost: Free
• More Information: Ancient Sites of Kauai

Directions

To get the Maniniholo Dry Cave, take the Kuhio Highway to Kauai’s North Shore.  Continue on the highway passed beautiful Hanalei all the to the Haena Beach Park near the end of the road.  The Maniniholo Dry Cave is located across the street from the beach park.

Parking

Parking for the Maniniholo Dry Cave is located in the Haena Beach Park.  Parking here can be very challenging and will require some patience during peak times.

Hawaiian Meaning

According to the book, “Place Names of Hawaii” the word “Maniniholo” means “Traveling surgeonfish”.  However, according to the book “Ancient Sites of Kauai” Maniniholo was also the name of the head fisherman of the ancient Menehune people that once populated the island before the arrival of the Tahitians.  According to legend Maniniholo caught a large batch of fish and stored it at the base of Kaiwiku’i Ridge in Haena.  However, the next day the fish was gone.  After investigating the theft Maniniholo determined that imp like creatures called “e’epa” that lived in small holes in the ridge stole the fish.  Maniniholo in response had his men dig in to the rock face to kill all the little creatures in response to stealing the fish.  The cave was then named after Maniniholo.

Narrative

A interesting natural feature to check out on Kauai’s North Shore is the Maniniholo Dry Cave.  The cave is located at the scenic Haena Beach Park which is a popular surfing location.  However, due to the poor weather the day we visited few people were surfing:

Regardless of the poor weather, the parking lot at the beach was still packed with cars.  After having to drive slowly around for a little while to wait for a car to pull out, I was able to find a place to park.  After parking my kids and I walked across the busy road to the dry cave:

Once inside the cave it did not seem that big at first:

As we got further into the cave the lower the roof became and we found the cave to be longer than we were expecting.  The measurements for the cave is that the roof gets up to 12 feet high, is 50 feet wide at its mouth, and is 100 feet in depth:

Here is the view looking back towards the cave’s opening:

Conclusion

We found no fish from the menehunes or dead imps in the cave, but still had fun spending about 30 minutes checking out the Maniniholo Dry Cave with my kids.  However, if the parking situation makes it difficult to visit, it may not be worth the time and aggravation to visit.