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We started our Big Island Hawaii Travel Blog to share our insider experiences, stories, travelogues, and to answer your questions. On our blog you will find the latest news, riveting photography, videography, and detailed vacation information that we hope will help you on your next vacation to the Big Island of Hawaii.
We also post email questions that we receive from our users on our blog along with our answers so that we can share the feedback with everyone as well as foster discussion about our favorite topic – the Big Island of Hawaii!

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Hi! My husband and I are planning a late October visit to the Big Island and were thinking about trying to get to the floor of Waipio Valley to see the sunrise. Is it worth the effort to get there before the sunrise (ie, can you get a good view of the sunrise from the beach or do the valley walls block the view)? Could we get just as good a view of the sunrise from the Waipio lookout or are there too many trees there?
Thanks for your help! I’m loving your blog!
Maridee,
Unfortunately, the mouth of the Waipio Valley faces a north eastern direction and the sunrise (from the east) would be blocked by the eastern valley wall. The Waipio Valley Lookout would also not offer you a direct view of the sunrise either — not because of the trees, but because of the direction that it faces and the finger of land that juts out to the north adjacent the lookout (to its east).
Regardless of the sunrise, I highly recommend taking the trip down to the bottom of the Waipio Valley and exploring the valley and its beautiful black sand beach.
A good sunrise idea that we’ve heard of but never tried ourselves is to go to the Volcanoes National Park and drive down to the bottom of Chain of Craters Road (leading to the ocean) and watch the sunrise from here. We’ve heard it is spectacular!