Today was
our final day with grand adventures planned. But, as any big day (or little day
for that matter) should, we began with breakfast. Here at the hotel, Sunday
breakfast is a much larger brunch ordeal, that we were not particularly
interested in spending the time at to make it worthwhile. So, instead we used
the breakfast credit we had at the local “market.” We got a breakfast wrap, a
cinnamon roll, and a coffee to share, and supplemented with some bananas we’d
earlier purchased. We were pleasantly surprised with how perfect that amount of
food seemed to be and we were excited to get on the road. We packed our bags,
made sandwiches, and hit the road.
The road
traveled is hardly worth describing again. We once more traveled west, through
the town of Hanalei, along the narrow winding coastal road until we once more
reached Haena Beach. But, unlike our previous ventures to this location, we
continued the road another few miles passed until we reached the official
entrance to the Haena State Park. For the record for future visitors,
you do need a permit to enter and park. We had read online that it was
only necessary if you were planning to do anything overnight. That apparently
was not the official website. But, we were fortunate in that the
attendant kindly let us in anyway but made sure we knew the truth of the
situation. Grateful, we parked the car, grabbed our boots and backpack and
headed out.
The
beginning of the trail was simple. It was a boardwalk through a Taro field and
then passed the edge of Ke’e Beach. None of this was officially the trail, but
rather got us to the head of the Kalalau Trail. The trail was awesome, and in
truth I’m not sure the best way to organize my reflections of the hike without
being redundant yet still being descriptive. I will attempt to discuss the
weather, the terrain, the views, and the wildlife in different paragraphs. This
is because each of these things changed so often and so unexpectedly that
describing the hike chronologically seems impossible. Here are some overview
facts though. The Kalalau Trail is a 2-mile hike to Hanakapi’ai Beach along the
coast. From there one has three options. Return to the car, hike another 2
miles inland along a stream to the Hanakapi’ai Falls, or continue another 9
miles to the Kalalau Beach and camp overnight. Our goal was to do the 8-mile
round trip to the Hanakapi’ai Falls.
The weather
on this hike was a combination of gorgeous, unpredictable, varied, and more.
Since we woke up, we could see blue skies overhead, but as we looked towards
the mountains, we hoped to hike along we could see as low, ominous clouds of
impending rain. In fact, we even drove in and out of rain twice on our way to
the hike. But when we set out from the car it was sunny and warm. The path was
dry and the views out to sea and along the coast were crystal clear. But then,
in a foolish attempt to appreciate our good fortune I expressed gratitude for
the clear weather – a cardinal sin of any hiker… Within a minute the clouds
came, and
the sky opened, and Archer did not hesitate to remind me of my fault (which I do not deny).
Fortunately, the storm was short and seemed to dissipate in another 10-20
minutes. This exchange of clear skies and rain clouds cycled through our hike
all day, though was more common on our hike in, as opposed to our way out. The
rain was never so hard as to feel oppressive, and it was sometimes even a
refreshing mist. Meanwhile the sun was hot, but dried us off when we needed,
and when we were dry there was a nice cooling breeze. After the fact, the
weather was wonderful to us, and we greatly enjoyed the experience of feeling
like we were constantly hiking around the border of a storm.
Next the
terrain. It is rare that I’ve done a hike with so much variance. For the
entirety of our hike we were going up, and down. The coastal trail was never
flat and brought us down nearly towards the beaches and carried us high up onto
cliffs and ridges. At times we were hiking along paths of smooth, beaten
stones, while at other times we were on soft dirt and pine needles. Some ridge
trails were limited to hard clay with log terraces. The largest path challenges
were the 3 stream crossings. On none of them was there a clear way to cross and
stay dry, so on the largest we were forced to wade through while carrying our
boots.
While the
terrain of the trail changed often, so did the views and the scenery. Our hike
passed through different groves of trees. The beginning was a thin but full
evergreen forest while later we were passing through bamboo clusters. The palm
trees and plants were plentiful always, sometimes the only trees around, and
other times interspersed among the more numerous trees. Sometimes we could look
out along the coast and see the crashing waves below us and the steep mountains
rising quickly to their jagged tops. The water directly below us was the most
stunning teal green and we could often see the coral reefs, resting just below
the surface by the beaches. The sights and the sounds of the wind and the
crashing ocean were constantly refreshing.
Wildlife
makes for a short paragraph (though now when rereading I realize it is longer than many) because we didn’t see that many animals, but still
some fun ones. We could hear birds all along the hike but didn’t see many and were
not keen enough to identify them. Interestingly, while chickens were plentiful
in the parking lot – as they are everywhere on this island – there were none to
be seen along the hike. Other than that, we saw only one animal worth
discussing on the way in. We encountered one Scolopendra Subspinipes (a species
of giant centipede). It was super creepy! The thing wound its way through the
grass on the edge of the trail and I estimated it to be about 8 inches long. I
was a bit slow to get my camera out, so sadly lack a personal picture, but I’m glad to have encountered it in the day with good visibility. On the return hike, we spotted 2 small lizards. While tiny local lizards
have been a part of
our trip everywhere we’ve gone, we think the rain may have put them in hiding
earlier. What was notable about these two lizards was that they were a bit
larger and significantly greener than the majority that we’ve seen on these
islands. And finally, at lunch we were eating on a rocky ridge overlooking the
beach the Hanakapi’ai Beach and we saw our third Hawaiian Monk Seal of the
trip! We got to see it do the classic “land wiggle” and roll around basking in
the sun. Unfortunately, it was too far away to get a good photo, but seeing it
was still clear. (It is the small grey bump in this picture, and we were able to get a better view in person, but not with our cameras/phones.)
Overall the
hike was a great success, though not in every way. We had 3 two-hour intervals.
The first was the hike in to Hanakapi’ai Beach, the second was upriver
towards
the falls and then out, and the third was a return to the car. We were
impressed at the consistency in our timing, as when I say two-hour intervals,
that is accurate to within a minute! Unfortunately, we never made it to the
actual falls. As we’d set out inland from the beach we were already worried
about time, and at the second river crossing we decided that continuing would
put us in the position of risking hiking out in the dark. In addition, we were
not prepared with the gear to handle any serious injuries. It was a bummer to
turn around, but we believe it was the correct choice and still view the hike
as a success. If you set out to do this hike, leave early, bring
appropriate footwear (a change of socks at a minimum), lots of water, and
probably a first aid kit. We hope to one day be back and try again.
The rest of
the day was quick. We had to stop by the grocery store on the way home
to buy
just a bit more food to round out our remaining meals. On the way we stopped at
the Hanalei Valley Lookout and finally took in the view we’d driven passed a
dozen timed. The view looked out towards the mountains, across vast Taro
fields, and along the river that we had kayaked just the other day.
We finished
the drive home and sought a brief rest in the hot tub to rest our muscles. We
enjoyed a conversation with a native Kaua’i-ian and then returned to our room
to
prep dinner. Shocking! It was taco night again. This time was a little
different though as we were prioritizing finishing the food we had. I grilled a
small steak we’d picked up to supplement tomorrow’s lunches as well as match
the “breakfast” tacos we were cooking. Scrambled eggs with onions, grilled
peppers and onions, refried beans, grilled steak and pineapple, green onions,
local avocados, and chipotle mayo. They were outstanding! We enjoyed thinking
that our two best taco nights were our first and our last – really bookending
out cooked dinners. It was a great end to a great day, and we were excited to
collapse in bed and watch some TV.
Finally... here's a silly thing that was really just for fun...
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