Of all the magnificent things we saw and did on the island of Kauai, this 10 mile hike along the untouched Napali coast was one of the most memorable experiences of my entire life. I think the sheer factor that there is no way to see this part of the island unless you are on a boat, a helicopter, or on this rugged hike made it all that more alluring. The Napali coast is situated within the 75% of the island that is protected national park; no roads, no dwellings, just rainforest; so we were able to see things on the coastline as well as when we hiked inland that were definitely unique to untamed wilderness. Passion fruit trees, huge bamboo forests, avocado trees.... and some of the smells were like heaven - native fruits that if I could have bottled into a candle I would have paid big money for. And the views......
Oh you guys, the views. We started this hike and our immediate thousand foot incline at 6:30am when the coastline looked like this:
And when we returned to the descent spot around 1:30pm to finish the last mile or so, it looked like this:
What a difference the sun made on this coastline. I didn't really take a lot of pictures along the coastline on our way up as the sun was just rising and the water was quite dark still, so all of the coastline pictures are mid day, but once we started inland around mile 3, it didn't matter - it was all lush rainforest in there! We did the portion of the hike starting at Ke'e beach, then up, up, up, and along the coast, got to the 2 mile "checkpoint" at Hanakapiai beach, and then ventured inland another 3 miles to Hanakapiai falls. The first two miles of the trail, although at quite an incline and with lots of rocks, were overall quite easy. Definitely a defined trail that we didn't see for the remainder of the day. :) Not to mention a few big river crossings - only ONE shoe got wet the whole hike! :)
After we made our incline, the subsequent descent followed again to the water at Hanakapiai beach. (Again, these photos are from the afternoon return portion of the hike - it was much much prettier in the sunlight)
After crossing a river down by the beach, we headed inland! One of the coolest noises I have heard was coming into the bamboo forest, and hearing the shoots clack in the wind. No leaves rustling in there, it was a literal chorus of bamboo wind chimes.
One of the reasons we started out this hike so early (read: up at 4:30am, out the door by 5:15am...) was not only to beat the heat, but also to beat the people. We didn't see a soul on the whole trail until we had been at the waterfall for a solid 45 minutes by ourselves. And that was what made the waterfall experience what it was. Have you ever had a particular moment when you have felt fully alive? I know that phrase is thrown around a lot, but there were a few moments on this trip that captured that spiritual experience for me.
The grandest of which was this 300 foot waterfall. Our first glimpse from a distance just started to make your skin tingle but when we walked into that clearing, on the rocks, saw the cavern surrounding the big cascade, heard nothing but birds and the crashing water, saw the still pool beneath it, and looked up to a bright blue sky and green mountains... time stood still. I mean it, I got tears in my eyes and I just stopped moving. We got a chance to see something of God's creation that day that I have never seen before. I mean, all the rest of it has been absolutely stunning, right? But in that moment we all were silent and in awe. I know I'm writing dramatically right now, but honestly, I can't even think about this moment without getting a bit emotional. It was that amazing.
This was a freshwater falls and pond that was fed from natural springs on the island, and it was unbelievably cold. But so so clean. Felt so good to swim after we had been sticky from hiking. Kind of a shock to the system though unless you just kept moving!
As I said before, we had a solid hour or so of uninterrupted time at the waterfall before the first (well, second ;) waves of hikers started coming through. When they started coming in, the whole atmosphere of the falls definitely changed, and we decided to head on back. I am beyond thankful for the precious time we had swimming at and enjoying this private spot. But back to the trail it was for us! We made pretty good time coming back out of the rainforest, until we got to the stunning turquoise coast, that is.
We took our time the last few miles to capture all of the beautiful water and coastline - and it was now the heat of the day and we were in open sun, so plenty of water breaks it was! Good excuse to stop and take some pictures. ;)
When we finally made it back down to the trail head, we were ready to hit the beach for a little bit of floating, resting in the shade, and snorkeling of course! We lunched with some new found friends...
Got some beautiful reef views in.... Adam and Nick were still "workin on that base..." :) Week long joke right there. Pete was showing them how its done with his native skin!
Since we had gotten such an early start on our day, we were all a bit tired but ready for the rest of our day's plans! On to some more sights!
Mahalo from the Napali coast - it is forever a special spot to me where all of us encountered the Lord's presence and experienced His astounding creation! What a hike!
The island of Kauai had us at hello. Gone were the crowded beaches, tourism, and chain restaurants; replaced instead by untouched beauty, fruit stands in the back of pickups, secret beaches and uncharted rainforest. That was my favorite part of Kauai. It felt like everywhere we hiked or beached or snorkeled was just found... by us.
The north shore of Kauai, specifically in and around the town of Hanalei, boasted (in my opinion) the best beaches and snorkeling. It was awesome to see purple coral, colorful fish, crevices and huge drop offs, sea anemones and different varieties of eel-things... all right inches from your face at times! We spent a few afternoons around many different beaches that all boasted the same things: a place for the guys to play, boogie boarding, waves, secluded spots, and beautiful snorkeling. Especially after some of the longer hikes it felt so good to wind down.
I think that all the snorkeling pictures (as well as how cool we looked in our masks) deserve their own post. Besides the fact that all the goPro pictures are on Jared's computer and he's in Seattle right now... so the underwater pics will be coming later!
When we headed into downtown Hanalei, we thankfully took the recommendation of our guidebook and tried this little place called Shave Ice Paradise for supposedly some of the best Hawaiian shave ice on the island. The shave ice here was good (not quite as good another hut we found later in the week - more on that later :) but what really got me at this place was their Macadamia nut ice cream. Whoah. I had it a few days in a row, I'll admit. But what better place to have it?! "Hawaiian shave ice" is actually a very real thing and I didn't know that! Apparently on the mainland its just all knock-offs of processed ice and too-fake syrup. We watched them hand grind off the ice block, and some shave ice places use just fruit juices and chunks of fruit as their syrup.
Just outside of Hanalei: maybe the most beautiful church I've ever seen.
Also noteworthy: the sand. Everywhere. In every crevasse that you can imagine on your body. And boy was it hot. Hanalei bay was the worst. Picture courtesy of Matt who was confined to the shade by his wife as a result of his sunburn....
Yowza. Sorry, Matt.....
And how funky are these trees? They were Adam's favorite.
One more unique beach stop along the north shore: Queen's bath.
To get to Queen's bath you had to hike down a very skinny slope through the jungle,and then maybe 1/2 a mile along the shoreline on simply rocks, really not knowing where you were going just following the ocean. But getting to this beauty, and staying while the sun was setting was probably a top 3 of the trip for all of us. It. Was. Breathtaking. A surreal and worshipful way to close off the day.
Queen's bath is not a place you want to be during the winter months or high-tide. The waves all look relatively calm in these pictures, but every once and a while a bigger one would come in and then you wanted to get back pretty quickly. It was almost reverent to be that close to the water in a totally deserted area and part of the island. It made you recognize the oceans power that much more.
So beyond thankful for this group of people. What an amazing bunch to travel with.
And that's only slightly edited. :) It was just that beautiful. Talk about our God, the artist.
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Coming up next on the north shore of Kauai.... the Kalalau trail hike. 10 miles of wilderness that cant be seen except by this hike or a helicopter. Stay tuned!
