It should be painfully obvious to anyone who’s read this blog that I have a thing for the Rocky Mountains. Nearly all of my recent trips have been to Colorado, Wyoming or Montana. Sometimes, you just need to break out of the mould!
I recently took a trip to the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Kauai is the least populated of the major Hawaiian islands. It has a spectacular assortment of natural landscapes, from the jaw dropping cliffs of the Nepali coast to the rolling landscape of Waimea Canyon. Each of these views would phenomenal on their own, but added backdrop of the Pacific ocean only acts to make them that much more special.
Day 1
The first day consisted almost entirely of travel. After an early morning flight out of Kansas City International Airport and a long flight from San Francisco, we arrived at Lihue airport on Kauai. As with most camping trips, the very next stop was walmart to stock up on supplies and food. Once we were adequately prepared for our first night, we head out toward our first campground of the trip.
Our first campground was Polihale State Park on the very West side of the island. Unfortunately, the road to the park proved too much for our Hyundai Elantra and we were forced to turn back after only a few miles. In general, my advice is to rent an SUV or Jeep if you’re on the island. Even the paved roads were in remarkably poor shape and any extra clearance you can get goes a long ways. This is further evidenced by the popularity of lifted trucks amongst the local residents.
Our backup plan was a small county park called Salt Pond. After we arrived and set up camp we had just enough time to sit on the beach and watch the sun set. Some nearby signs signalled the presence of a Hawaiian Monk Seal taking a nap on the beach. Worn out from our long day of travel, we decided to turn in while the local beach party continued into the night.
Day 2
After waking up early, we tore down camp and drove towards our first hike of the trip, Awa’awapuhi Ridge in Waimea State Park. True to the island’s relaxed atmosphere, we were early enough to be the second group there. Consequently, we had the trail to ourselves for nearly all of our hike. The trail was almost entirely wooded most of the way, with all of the big views at the very end. The final view, however, was very much worth the wait!
Awa’awapuhi was one of the muddiest trails I’ve ever hiked! Kauai gets a surprising amount of rain, especially at the higher elevations in Waimea and Koke’e State Parks. After cleaning our boots, we drove back down the mountain to Koke’e State Park to eat lunch. After exploring the mountain lookouts, local shrimp restaurants, and taking the coldest shower of my life, we turned in for the night at Koke’e State Park.
Day 3
Staying on the mountain gave us easy access in the morning to a multitude of fantastic trails. The first trail we decided to attempt was a short hike to a vista on the summit of the mountain. After driving to the Pu’u O Kila lookout, we started hiking the Pihea trail toward the vista. This hike turned out to be much more than we had anticipated!
The top of the park, known as Mount Waialeale, is one of the wettest places on earth. It rains nearly 360 days out of the year.
The mountains of Kauai are different from the Rockies. There’s much less rock, and far more dirt. At the summit of this mountain, all of the dirt had turned into hardened, slick mud. This made the hike, which traversed a ridge and traveled up and down constantly, a far more difficult experience than expected. After climbing lots of mud ledges and only slipping a single time, we decided to call it good. We had hiked right past the vista on accident, and the clouds made it impossible to see the coast. This trail was such an adventure even without the views!
Our next stop was one of many waterfalls. Due to the nature of the rain and Kauai’s unique features, there is an excess of waterfalls throughout the island. About half way up the mountain is a trailhead for a waterfall known as Waipo’o. This was one of the best hikes of the trip. The trail was varied, going through lush jungle, up muddy slopes, across exposed ridges, and terminating at a massive waterfall.
After such a long day of hiking, we wanted to relax for the rest of the day. We found a beach near our camping spot for the night and snorkeled the reef. After an excellent dinner at “The Garden Island Grill,” where a fantastic local musician was playing, we arrived at Anini beach campground for the night.
Day 4
Finally, the big day had arrived. All of the research I had done online had indicated that the Kalalau trail and by extension the Nepali Coast State Park were amongst the highest rated hiking trails in the world. Unfortunately, due to the last second nature of our trip we were not able to acquire permits to hike the entirety of the Kalalau trail. However, it is legally permitted to day hike to the Hanakapi’ai beach and falls. This proved to be as incredible as all the reviews had suggested.
I fully intend to return to Kauai someday and do the full Kalalau trail, including the overnight stay at Kalalau beach. If the rest of the trail is anything similar to the portion we hiked, it easily deserves its recognition as a world class trail.
After some proper showers at the island’s only YMCA, we arrived at Anahola beach for the night.
Day 5
After going so hard for the previous four days, we were ready for a more relaxing rest day. After sleeping in to the late hour of 6:45, we drove into Kapa’a to check out Tamba, a local surf shop, and book some surfing lessons for later in the week.
The rest of the day was spent snorkeling at Anini beach, which proved to be the better of the two snorkeling sights we checked out. There was such an abundance of tropical fish and animals, including eel, yellow tang, triggerfish, and an assortment of puffer fish. Having spent most of the day in the water, and obtaining a terrible sunburn on my back, we moved on to Kapaa and spent the night for the second time at Anahola beach.
Day 6
Surf day! After a fairly uneventful morning we met our surf instructor at Wailua beach for surf lessons. As it turned out, surfing was much easier than we had anticipated. After just a few hours we were capable of standing up and catching small waves on our own. As it turns out, surfing really wears you out! Fortunately when you’re on Kauai it isn’t difficult to find a beach to relax away the rest of the day.
Day 7
After so many relaxing days, it was time for another hike! There is a small mountain near the town of Poipu called the Sleeping Giant. We had decided to climb this mountain in the early hours of the morning to watch the sunrise from the summit. It only took up about an hour to climb the mountain, and the sunrise was really inspiring from the top!
The rest of the day was fairly calm, Terrill went diving with a local scuba company and I hammocked the local Puipu beach.
Day 8
With our flight coming up that evening, we decided to spend our last few hours in Kauai trying out a local golf course. We found a cheap course called Kukuiolono. The course was excellent! As a fledgling golfer I was able to keep up more or less with the other more experienced players and the views were magnificent all around. The course was nestled in the mountains so from one side you could see Kauai unique mountain terrain, and from the other you could look out over the Pacific Ocean.
After golf was finished, it was time to end the trip. We spent the evening at a local pier used in the filming of Jurassic Park, packed up our stuff, prepared for the flight, and drove to the Lihue Airport where it had all began.
Conclusion
Kauai is a special place. It’s so drastically different then all of the other places I traveled, and it really opened my eyes to the excellent travel opportunities available outside of the Rocky Mountains. I am sure that someday I’ll return to the Hawaiian islands, especially considering all the great hiking available on Mauai! Mahalo for the great trip, Kauai, and aloha for now.