Manoa Falls Trail Trees in Hawaii

Trees along the trail to Mānoa Falls with a mountain in the distance on the island of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi.

During our 2023 Hawaiʻi trip, we took a hike through a rainforest to Mānoa Falls. The falls were nice (see part 5 of the trip report for more), but the scenery along the way was every bit as nice as the waterfall. I keep finding photos from our visit that I have not shared yet, and this was a good one. How did it not make it into the trip report?

Several movies have used this area as a filming location. Can you imagine dinosaurs roaming through here, such as in Jurassic Park? Or can you picture this as a mysterious island, such as in the television series Lost? If so, you are not alone!

I hope all of those vines are not poisonous, like poison ivy! We stayed on the trail the whole time, just to be safe.

Angry Weather

Recently, we had some strong thunderstorms come through our area. We got lots of rain, strong winds, thunder, lightning, and even hail. As Laura said, the frustrating thing about hail is that the only thing you can do is sit inside the house and listen to it. You cannot stop it or protect things outside from it. Fortunately, we did not have any damage from any of the weather.

Sometimes, weather like that can seem to be pretty angry. Is God angry at me when rain and winds and hail come my way? Do we live at the mercy of an angry God just waiting to throw bad stuff at us? Not at all.

We serve a loving, merciful, compassionate God. He is a just and righteous God, and we are sinful beings. But he offers us forgiveness through the death of his Son, and he is patient, wanting everyone to come to repentance.

Even when we are receiving some rough weather, I am thankful for the blessing of a patient, loving God.

Dear friends, don’t let this one thing escape you: With the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. The Lord does not delay His promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance. - 2 Peter 3:8-9 HSCB

About the Photo

After the previous two black and white photo posts, I figured it was time for a good color photo. And what better candidate for color than something from Hawaiʻi?

As usual, I followed my standard procedures to bring out the color a bit more, just to make it even more interesting. Because I definitely remember it being a very colorful place. And a little sweaty, but that was mainly just me.

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Darktable.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Rokinon 35mm f/1.8
ISO: ISO-200
Shutter Speed: 1/3000 sec.
Aperture: f/1.8
Focal length: 35mm
Date: June 17, 2023
Location: Mānoa Falls, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi