Hiking - Part 12

Behind the Waterfall

The idea of a secret place behind a waterfall is a theme that has appeared in literature and movies, whether it's the Bat Cave (from Batman Begins, 2005) ...

Or Zorro's hideaway (from The Mask of Zorro, 1998) ...

Or the secret entrance to the outlaw gang's hideout in Johnny Guitar, 1954.  Here we see Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden passing through the waterfall to enter.

I have to comment on Johnny Guitar.  This spectacularly strange Western has become a cult classic.  Conventional gender roles were turned on their head.  Joan Crawford plays a gun-toting saloon owner who literally wears the pants.  Sterling Hayden is her boyfriend and supposedly the head of an outlaw gang, but his role is mainly to be the blond love interest.  Crawford's nemesis is Mercedes McCambridge, who leads the local townspeople, and the movie actually ends with a shootout between the two women.

Another scene behind the waterfall happened in The Last of the Mohicans, 1992.  This very short clip shows the bad quys beneath a waterfall in pursuit of the good guys.  This scene was filmed under a real waterfall at Bridal Veil Falls in Dupont State Park in North Carolina.  It's hard to see, but there's a sheet of water falling at the left.  If you visit the park you can actually hike underneath the waterfall.

Now, for those who have been wondering where are the unashamed males, here's one on a hiking trail that goes right under a waterfall.

Here's a guy behind a waterfall.  You can tell he's behind it, because the tree in the background must be outside.

Another guy behind a waterfall.

This guy is taking a waterfall shower, but there's clearly a substantial space behind the waterfall.  Usually the space behind the waterfall is quite small, certainly not suitable for a secret lair like the Bat Cave.

Are there any waterfalls that actually have a large cave behind them?  There's at least one, Rainbow Falls in Hilo, Hawaii, on the island where I live.  The water falls right over the mouth of a huge lava tube cave.  Lava tubes are tunnels created by molten lava during a volcanic eruption.  Lava tubes can be miles long, and this island is honeycombed with them.

This cave was even a secret lair, in a way.  There is a Hawaiian legend that this cave was the home of the goddess Hina, the mother of the Hawaiian demigod Maui.  We'll cover Maui and the myth about this cave later in our series on Gods, Myths and Heroes.