The state blocked the unauthorized trail after two women fell to their deaths

The state will not reopen access to an unauthorized trail to Opaekaa Falls on Kauai, where two women fell 300 feet to their deaths in December, unless it can be improved and made safer.

Though the trail to the falls is on state park land, “we didn’t build it. It wasn’t built as a trail,” said Peter Young, director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, which oversees state parks.

Cousins Elizabeth Ann Brem, a 35-year-old lawyer and mother from Encinitas, Calif., and Paula Gonzalez Ramirez, 29, a businesswoman from Bogota, Colombia, fell to their deaths Dec. 19 after apparently taken a wrong turn on the trail.
The unmarked, unmaintained trail is listed in several guidebooks, but is not condoned by the state. It begins near a roadside lookout over the falls on Kuamoo Road and descends to the pool hundreds of yards below over steep terrain.

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(Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin)