March 6 Kalalau Trail

The book we are using is called, “The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook, 5th Edition” by Wizard Publications. At first it was a bit disconcerting, because they talk about things to see and then direct you to another part of the book for more information regarding hiking, or whatever, so until I got used to it, I couldn’t find anything. But as I get used to using it, I like it better and better. The writers have a great sense of humor and a ton of really good information once you find it.

We woke early again to the sound of the ocean and the birds. I’ll never get tired of that, I am sure. Having granola and sweet baby bananas for breakfast before we headed north on HWY 56 to the north side of the island. Driving north from Anahola leads into a lovely rural area of gentle sloping terraces that face the ocean backed by those amazing vertical green mountains to the east. There are mango and other kinds of orchards along the way, and even a fresh fruit stand where I got a pineapple and banana tropical smoothie that was perfect. As we approached Kilauea we found a roadside stand with 2 little girls and their mom selling banana bread as part of their home schooling in economics. Of course, we bought a very tiny loaf for 5 bucks, and it wasn’t that great, but the pictures were cute.

On through small towns and to the famous overlook of the Hanalei Valley, where most of the taro plant is grown in wet fields, much like rice. We passed through Princeville and Hanalei, with our destination in mind, expecting to return another time to explore the shops of both those charming little towns. We did have to stop to take photos of the famous green church with the mountain backdrop. It was truly lovely.

The road on the north side narrows considerably with 7 one lane bridges. Everyone is polite, and there is a certain island etiquette as to how to cross these bridges. We followed a road just so incredibly beautiful it defies description until we arrived at the end at the Ke’e Beach. This is the end of the road, as far as you can drive This seems to be a very popular place because even as early as we were there was very little parking available. There are two huge caves, one dry and one wet, and the beach is quite a distance from the main parking lot and the main trailhead.

The Kalalau trail is according to all our books not only the most famous in Kauai, but the most famous in all of Hawaii. It follows the precipitous north coast along the cliffs with a sheer drop to the ocean below. I had imagined a lovely tropical hike with waterfalls and ocean views. There weren’t that many waterfalls, but the ocean views were breathtaking. So was the hike! It was a perfect temperature, and with all the elevation ups and downs I was really glad to be hiking at mostly sea level or close to it. The hike is beautiful. It goes for 11 miles along the cliffs of the inaccessible Na Pail coastline, to beaches and waterfalls, and ends at the Kalalau valley and beach in the midst of this magnificent coast. This is the part of the island that is usually seen only by helicopter or by expensive charter catamaran trips. We decided to opt out of either of those, but thought that the shorter part of the hike to Hanakapi’ai beach would do just fine. 2 miles each way, piece of cake, right? We do that all the time. Well, let me tell you, 2 miles up and down on slippery volcanic rock is not a piece of cake. It was a wonderful trip, and we began fairly early in the morning, and by the time we limped to the end of the trail it was mid afternoon. Lovely. Mo and I laughed and said, ‘I wonder how much longer we are going to be able to do this kind of thing?” Well, hopefully a bit longer anyway.

Aching knees made the cool salty waters of Ke’e beach call to me and I went directly into the cool clear water and what an amazing feeling. The surf didn’t look heavy at all, but as soon as I relaxed into the water, I noticed that I was going out to sea very very quickly. I swam hard and went nowhere and laughed a lot as I let the current take me where it wanted, and eventually went back into shore. The sandy bottom was perfect and clean and I could see it as clearly as if I had on a mask. I loved that part especially. Swimming felt so good on my legs, and when I finally got out and attempted to walk up the beach I remembered again that they were tired. Back to the car and comfortably settled into our seats, we traveled the lovely roads home to Anahola without any thought whatsoever of checking out a single thing!

Nice to come home to our lovely little house, make a great stir fry dinner and relax with some reading and writing and the gentle afternoon breezes. The end of a very perfect day!