Queen’s Bath, one of the most dangerous spots in Hawaii, has been closed since Oct. 6. And yet San Francisco-based AllTrails, the “world’s largest and most trusted outdoor platform,” still gives directions to the spot, where there have been many rescues and drownings. A simple search on Google brings up the page as one of the top search results; the trail has 1,715 user reviews.

The hiking app — which raised questions in the Bay Area last year after listing directions to a dangerous shortcut to Alamere Falls in Point Reyes National Seashore — didn’t even inform its users the trail to Queen’s Bath was closed. SFGATE reached out asking why not; shortly after that, the page changed.

“Because hikers can find this trail on many other sites, we post the trail on AllTrails but include explicit information that the trail may be inaccessible or prohibited for seasonal closures,” Meghan Praznik, head of communications at AllTrails, told SFGATE in an email after we contacted them. “Our users can also help us maintain accurate and up-to-date trail information by suggesting edits or leaving reviews.”

A large natural pool on the coastline of Kauai’s north shore, Queen’s Bath is filled with water by waves spilling over a rock shelf. The photos of it are idyllic — usually a woman floating peacefully on a calm, sunny day — but what visitors don’t see is the danger, until it’s too late.

“The pond quickly fills with water due to breaking waves on the ledge, which can suck swimmers out to sea,” Kalani Vierra, chief of Kauai Ocean Safety Bureau, told SFGATE in an email. “This is especially dangerous during our winter months when we experience large surf.” 

He also said the trail is muddy and wet, which can lead to injuries.

In April 2022, a father and son were rescued at Queen’s Bath after being swept into the ocean. The previous month, a 16-year-old girl became trapped on the rocks there. Kauai Fire Department responded with a helicopter and lifeguards arrived on jet skis, but ultimately a firefighter had to hike down and swim to the girl to make the rescue.

People don’t have to be swimming or walking on the rocks to be in danger, either. Onlookers can be caught off guard by unexpected waves knocking them into the water and “making it impossible for them to climb back up due to the surge and jagged rocks,” said Vierra.

Since January 2022, Vierra said there have been six rescues at Queen’s Bath, including in the summer months, when the water is usually calmer. Ocean Safety Bureau records also indicate there have been 10 deaths at Queen’s Bath from Jan. 1, 1999 to Dec. 5, 2018. However, Kauai’s newspaper, The Garden Island, reports there have been dozens of rescues over a span of 30 years.

The rescues are extremely dangerous for firefighters, especially in hazardous weather conditions. “Sometimes, the conditions are too risky even for our firefighters to intervene,” said Vierra. “Our first responders have to reach the area by jet ski, helicopter, or by jumping off the rocks into the water.”

Over the years, the Kauai Fire Department has tried to warn visitors of the dangers of Queen’s Bath with posted signs, but many people ignored them. Now, it closes and locks the gate to the trail during the winter season, when high surf is known to occur on the north shore.

“We urge the public that entry in these hazardous conditions can result in injuries or drownings, and neglecting these warnings places our first responders’ lives unnecessarily at risk,” Kauai Fire Department Chief Michael Gibson said in a press release.

Vierra says closing the gate in the winter has helped, but some visitors still ignore the large “no trespassing signs citing danger. There are now rescues about every month, he says, instead of every two weeks.

The allure of Queen’s Bath starts long before a visitor arrives on the island. Photos of the Kauai “hidden gem” are splashed across social media, and websites and videos sharing how to get there are easy to find. Queen’s Bath used to be a lesser-known place that was accessed with the help of a local, but it has been aggressively thrust into the influencer spotlight.

“Visitors were going regardless of the conditions to get that photo, putting themselves in harm’s way and resulting in rescues,” Sue Kanoho, executive director of the Kauai Visitors Bureau, told SFGATE in an email. “We do not promote Queen’s Bath, never show images of Queen’s Bath and educate travel agents/media that this is an area we do not promote due to the numerous injuries and fatalities that happen there.”

Additionally, blogs and posts write that Queen’s Bath “was used for what it sounds like; it was a royal bathing place,” as AllTrails’ website once stated, and that it was visited to “wash off the stress.” This narrative is also shared on Wikipedia. SFGATE asked AllTrails for its source for the claim, but later saw that the webpage for Queen’s Bath had been changed to say “tidepools were sometimes used as royal baths.”

“I do not know of any connection to alii [royalty] to Queen’s Bath and suspect it’s a nickname someone gave decades ago,” said Kanoho. That would date the name’s use to long after Hawaii’s monarchy was overthrown.

There’s also no history to back the claim that royalty went there to bathe. “Though it’s called Queens Bath there’s absolutely no ties to the alii,” Chucky Boy Chock, director of the Kauai Museum, also told SFGATE in an email. “No chants or moolelo [traditional stories] are known.”

It’s just a made-up story that glamorizes the appeal of — and fluffs up the content in online listings for — this dangerous place. 

Editor’s note: SFGATE recognizes the importance of diacritical marks in the Hawaiian language. We are unable to use them due to the limitations of our publishing platform.