Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden

The first week of February, Sharon and I spent our Happy Anniversary Hawaii Vacation on the Big Island and O'ahu. I will be blogging about the entire trip in follow-up blogs but I have at least two blogs already written about the trip. This one and the next one!

The Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden is located about 8 miles north of Hilo, Hawaii, and is along a four-mile Scenic Route at Onomea Bay. During our recent vacation, we ensured we had enough time to make a stop here and the time was well spent. First, be sure to bring mosquito repellent with you. This imported critter does like the area.

Next, the path through the park is not easy and some parts are not wheelchair accessible. The path is well marked and mostly paved but the climb back out can be difficult.

But it is all worth the effort! You start the walk down a 500 foot elevated boardwalk that goes along the Kahalii Stream. This ravine is covered with giant bamboo, bananas, flowering vines, orchids and ferns. One of the first items I noticed was the SIZE of the plants! Bamboos were well in the 50 foot high range.

Our favorite area was filled with nothing but orchids. We took over 50 photos just of the different colors and shapes of orchids in the small garden (which overlooked their tropical bird aviary).

Although the Onomea Falls (a three-tiered waterfall) brought us a sense of serenity, the Heliconia Trail amazed us with over 80 different species of these colorful flowerheads. The Heliconias ranged in size from about 2 foot to about 20 foot high with numerous shapes and sizes! In case you didn’t know it, at one time, Heliconias were classified the same as bananas but now are considered a separate family. What I thought were flowers were actually highly modified leaves called bracts. My favorite, and possibly the largest, bracts were from the hanging lobster.

There are several other areas such as Banyan Canyon, Bromeliad Hill, and the Vistas (Wi-apple Vista, Coconut Vista, and Monkeypod Vista) that were side trips we walked down.

The scents and sights were amazing and almost overwhelming in the diversity, color and size.

On your next trip to the Big Island, make sure you plan to stop here for at least 2 hours but preferably for 4 hours. Once you complete your journey, you can also stop and shop to have orchids mailed back to you here on the Mainland.