Queen's Bath EarthCache 🌎 EarthCache

Note: Due to severe surf during winter months, the posted parking lot and gated access to Queen's Bath is sometimes closed off. They do this to keep people from trying to swim in this area, but the trails are generally open. This usually happens between October and March. If weather conditions are extremely bad, the area can also be closed during other parts of the year as well.

Queen's Bath EarthCache

The island of Kaua‘i has a roughly circular shape and 136 miles of diversified coastline. There are currently two models for the island’s morphology, a single shield model and a two-shield model.

Many years after the primary shield-building stage had ended on Kaua‘i, the Koloa Volcanic Series of rejuvenated vulcanism began resurfacing two thirds of the eastern side of the island. Locations on the north, east and southern coasts of Kaua‘i contain lavas of the Koloa Series. The north coast, east of Hanalei, was thoroughly covered by rejuvenated lavas of the Koloa Volcanic Series and Koloa lavas make up much of the backshores of the modern beaches in this area.

Between the Kïlauea Pt. area and Princeville, to the west, lie several long, wide stretches of beautiful calcareous sand such as: Kauapea Beach: a pocket of sand 3,000 feet long and almost 65 feet wide that transitions to a boulder beach at the west end, inside Kalihiwai Bay. Offshore of Kalihiwai Bay, almost 4 miles east of Princeville, begins one of the largest shallow fringing reef systems in the state where the sandy shoreline at Kauapea transitions to a boulder beach at the west end inside Kalihiwai Bay ~almost 4 miles east of Princeville. The fringing reef extends over 1,575 feet offshore and almost 2 miles to the west, and offers moderate protection to the shoreline from powerful winter and spring storms. The reef narrows to the east and disappears in front of Princeville, where two natural calcareous pocket beaches and one longer sandy stretch of beach skirt the sea cliffs at the waters edge. The beaches fronting the cliffs at Princeville are typically inundated by large winter surf that may create strong longshore currents.

Hanalei is the largest bay on Kaua‘i and it is a popular surf spot. The bay contains a calcareous crescent beach along the shoreline that is almost 2 miles long and averaging almost 130 feet wide in the summer. The sands here are mixed with terrigenous sediments from the Hanalei, Wai‘oli, and Waipä rivers that enter at 3 locations in the backshore of the bay.

The Hanalei interior plain is a fossil shoreline that developed during a higher stand of the sea between 1,500 and 4,000 years ago. The large Hanalei River gently meanders over the broad flat Hanalei Valley floor and is one of the few navigable rivers on the island; enjoyed by recreational kayakers and outrigger canoe paddlers.

The island’s largest exposed layers of the rejuvenated Koloa Volcanic Series lavas are visible in the east wall of the Hanalei Valley, and are as thick as 2,100 feet.

A Very Unique Tide Pool

Unlike the original "Queen's Bath", which was located in Kalapana on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, and was formed after a lava tube collapsed and filled with fresh water supplied by natural springs, this Queen's Bath was formed from a sinkhole surrounded by igneous rock. A tide pool or rock pool is a shallow pool of seawater that forms on the rocky intertidal shore. These pools typically range from a few inches to a few feet deep and a few feet across, although some can be much larger. Many of these pools exist as separate bodies of water only at low tide, as seawater gets trapped when the tide recedes. Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the sun and moon. A tidal cycle is usually about 25 hours and consists of one or two high tides and two low tides.

Getting to the Queen’s Bath Earthache:

Park off Kapiolani Road near Punahele Road (N 22 13.652' W 159 29.170') and follow the trail to the right to the bottom of the hill.

The Trail to Queen's Bath
 

Watch your step - slippery when wet
 

Waterfalls # 1
 

Another waterfall
 

Swimming in Queen’s Bath has claimed several lives – Be safe!
 

It can be calm in the summer
 

Or very dangerous when the surf is up!
 

You have been warned!

To log this earthcache send me the answers to the following questions and post the required photo:

1. Describe the color and texture of the rocks at Queen's Bath. Why do you think they are this texture?
2. What type of rock do you believe this to be at Queen's Bath?
3. Based on erosion you see around you, do you believe Queen's Bath will remain for many years to come?
4. This tide pool is unique because of two main reasons that you should be able to deduce when you see it...what do you think makes it so unique (hints provided if you are stumped)?
5. Required: Take a picture of you, your group, or something personal with Queen’s Bath in the photo.

Sources:

Roadside Geology of Hawaii, Rick Hazlett, Cheryl Gansecki, & Steve Lundblad, 2022

Encyclopedia of Tidepools and Rocky Shores, Mark W Denny and Steve Gaines, 2007

Volcanoes in the Sea: The Geology of Hawaii, Gordon A. Macdonald, Agatin Abbott, & Frank L. Peterson, 1983