Hiking Kaui

Kaui is a great place to hike and we had a few great hikes. Calvin chose our first two hikes and I should have gotten a hint by the name of our first hike.  We did the Canyon hike in Waimea Canyon.  The nature of a canyon is downhill and uphill, and that pretty much explains the hike.

This is the view from the trail head. Notice that bare spot across the way, in the mid left of the photo.

 This is pretty much my view of the trail, that blur at the top is Calvin.

After hiking down our side of the canyon and up the other side we reached the bald spot and took our picture.

Just around the corner was supposedly an 800 foot waterfall. It might have been spectacular, but we only saw the stream at the top. We couldn't see the waterfall from any angle.

We did brave a very cold smaller waterfall around the corner.

Canyon hike: 1.8 miles down and 1.8 miles up.

The next day we hiked the first section of the Kalalau Trail along the Napali coast. You can only get to this section of the coast by boat or foot. The full trail is 11 miles long, but we just went in 2 miles.

This is the view back to the beach from a quarter mile up the trail. 

This is our sweaty selves at half a mile up the trail.

And this is what the Napali coastline looks like from here.

This is me hiking down the final hill to our destination beach.

Unfortunately the "beach" was a boulder field.  The sand washes away in the winter and it had not come back yet. So we ate our lunch and went back.

Kalalau Trail: 2 miles up and 2 miles down.

The next day I chose the hike, a lovely paved coastline trail, pretty much a flat stroll. 

 The Ke Ala Hele Makalae trail is one of the top 10 things to do in Kaui, and the views are great, but it really doesn't compare with the Napali Coast.