Kauai- Part Deux, the Saga Continues

Welcome back to the exciting tale of my family vacation to Kauai.  When we last left our protagonists, they were fearing for their lives on a swinging bridge and admiring a beach littered with industrial trash.

This time, we will explore the "grand canyon of the pacific" and other sites on the west side.

The west side of Kauai is fairly unpopulated.  It has several farms, a giant military base, and a lot of land that is uninhabitable.  Fortunately for me, it makes for great scenery.

One of the reasons I wanted to come to Kauai in the first place was to see the Waimea Canyon, which is nicknamed "the grand canyon of the pacific."  The guide book says this quote is attributed to Mark Twain, but he later revealed he never actually said that.  Regardless, that catch phrase sticks.

There is a 19-mile scenic drive with many pulloffs and overlooks into the canyon.  This road begins in the town of Waimea and quickly gains 1000 ft elevation in a short distance and keeps climbing from there.  Before long, we were gazing into the canyon from the side of the road.

OK, so it's not as grand as the grand canyon, but it is pretty awe-inspiring with the colored layers of rock.  It made for some nice pictures.

At the very end of the drive, there is a lookout into the Kalalau Valley from atop the rim of the canyon.  It is almost surreal to look down into this valley, which is a few thousand feet below you, and watch it extend on into the ocean.

After a short lunch break on a nearby bench, we decided to attempt the hike at the end of the road.  Let me first explain that this part of Kauai is riddled with hiking paths.  We could literally be out on the trails all day every day for weeks on end.  I don't think our toddler and infant would appreciate that, though.  We decided to hike until the whining from the toddler almost reached "point of no return" status. 

So with a baby once again strapped to my chest, the four of us set out on the only hike we would attempt as a family while on this vacation.  Mary was a good sport about all this.  She was glad to hold my lens cap while I stopped to snap some photos of the scenery.

After about a half mile or so, we turned around and headed back to the car.  After stopping for lunch II at the best restaurant on Waimea Canyon Drive (i.e. the ONLY restaurant on Waimea Canyon Drive), we set about exploring more of the south coast we discussed in the previous post.

Wild chickens are all over the place here!

There is one more thing I want to mention about the west side of the island.  It is so close to the neighbor island of Niihau that you can actually see its silhouette from Kauai.  This is a fascinating island simply because it is the only privately-owned island in the Hawaiian chain.  Some rich family bought the entire island a long time ago, and generally doesn't allow anyone to visit.  They say they are trying to preserve the nature and wildlife there and protect it from the tourists.  Sounds noble. Regardless, here is a nice silhouette of the private island taken from the balcony of our Barking Sands cabin.

And with that I shall leave you with some sunset photos taken about 100 yards from our cottage on Barking Sands.  Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion to our Kauai story!

Garden Isle- part I

My family and I recently took a trip to Kauai (AKA The Garden Island).  The fact that I was toting two small children meant I didn't get much hiking in, but i did get plenty of exciting pictures.

Yes, I do my own stunts

Kauai is an amazing, magical place.  You're probably thinking to yourself "this guy lives on Oahu, isn't that petty much the same as Kauai?"  abso-freakin-lutely not!  Kauai is what most people think of when they picture a Hawaiian vacation- mountains, waterfalls, steep jagged cliffs rising from the ocean, great hiking, etc.  Think of Oahu as a metropolis that happens to be surrounded by beaches, and Kauai as a deserted island that happens to have an airport and paved roads.

Most of you have probably seen Kauai, but have not realized it.  Many movies have been shot here- everything from Jurassic Park to Six Days Seven Nights.  Much of Kauai is uninhabited, and therefore perfect for portraying a deserted island on the silver screen.


I took over 700 photos over our 4 days here, so that alone should tell you how picturesque this place is.  I won't attempt to cover the entire trip in one massive blog post.  Rather, I will split it up into at least 3 separate posts.

This post will cover the southern part of the island- everything from Waimea to Lihue.  I will cover the canyon and the east/north sides in a different post.


Once we landed, stocked up on supplies at Wal-Mart, and scored some lunch, we packed up the wagon and headed west.  Our destination was the Barking Sands military resort on the westernmost part of the island.  We had a few hours to kill before check-in, and it's a small island, so we decided to hit some sights along the way. 

One of the first sights we saw was a stretch of road known as the "tree tunnel."  Much like the name implies, this is a stretch of road that is completely canopied in tree cover.  The guide book says it was much more impressive before the major hurricane in the '90s, but we thought it was still pretty neat.  I couldn't get a good photo though because of all the cars.  The kiddos weren't going to wait around for me to get a clear shot, so this is the best I was able to manage.

This highway led through several small towns, including Poipu.  Poipu has a very impressive stretch of shoreline known as the lithified cliffs. 

There is a fairly short hike that follows the cliffs from one beach to another.  With a baby strapped to my chest, and flip-flops (slippahs) attached to my feet, I set out exploring.  My wife and son decided to stay back at the beach and play there.

The combination of jagged rock formations and clear blue waters made this an interesting stroll along the coast.

Down the road a ways there is a tour bus trap that overlooks a spouting blowhole, known as Spouting Horn.    Our guide book said this one is different because it occasionally moans as it spits out water.  I couldn't pass up the chance to see the rocks moan at me.  Sadly, the blowhole wasn't talking the day we went.  It was still impressive regardless.

Across from the Spouting Horn is a massive botanical garden that boasts the tree from Jurassic Park where they found the giant dino eggs.  Sadly, this place isn't kid friendly (they don't allow kids under 8 on most of their tours), so we didn't get to see the big tree.  This is the first botanical garden that I've been to that blatantly doesn't like kids.  I digress.

Heading further west we encountered some former sugar towns.  Sugar used to be one of the biggest cash crops here in Hawaii, but eventually it got too expensive to cultivate it here and the industry died out.

One of these such towns is Hanapepe.  The guide book says it is a shadow of its former self.  We found it to be quaint with little olde tyme shops lining the main boulevard.  The primary reason we even made a stop in this tiny town was to see the Hanapepe Swinging Bridge.

Despite being appropriately named, my wife got scared when she started walking on the swinging bridge and it started to, um, swing.  She felt like she was going to fall through the boards and plummet to her death in the water 10 feet below.  We didn't spend too much time on this bridge.  A tour bus of Koreans pulled up when we started walking away. We didn't hear any of them plummet to the river, so I guess the bridge is sturdier than it feels.

As the Korean tour group left the bridge, they passed by us sitting in the parking lot eating some snacks.  For some reason, the asians are infatuated with my son's fiery red hair.  Koreans and Japanese especially want to stop and take pictures with him.  I guess they want to show their friends back home they met a ginger kid.  I'm not sure if that is racist or not, but my son gets a kick out of it every time.

Down the street from Hanapepe is a very unique beach nicknamed Glass Beach.  What you see in the photos below may look like small pebbles, but are actually little pieces of glass (dulled and smoothed by the ocean).

The guide book says it's a byproduct of the nearby industrial and port facilities, and that this glass is actually litter.  Regardless, I think it has a nice effect and makes for a unique place.

That is all I have for this edition of Haole Hiking.  Stay tuned for more Adventures of Haoles in Kauai in subsequent blog posts!

Waimea Falls "Hike"

Welcome to my third installment of Haole Hiking.  This post will cover the scenic Waimea Falls "Hike."  I put hike in quotes because it is more of a leisurely walk along a paved path through a botanical garden that ends in a waterfall.

Waimea Falls sits in Waimea Valley, the botanical garden that sits across the street from Waimea Bay, home of epic surfing in the winter and epic rock jumping fails during the summer.  This is a paid attraction, which is different than most hikes on the island.  It's not unusual for hikes to charge for parking, but I can't think of another that charges an admission fee.

So the entrance charge combined with the long drive almost kept me away.  I'm glad it didn't, because this place is worth the price of admission.  However, a confluence of unfortunate circumstances made this particular trip less pleasant than it could have been. 


Here are my lessons learned:
1) leave the kids at home
2) check the weather report (Isn't it always sunny and warm in Hawaii?)
3) bring bug spray
4) leave the kids at home
5) bring swim gear
6) arrive early
7) don't leave the snacks in the car
8) leave the kids at home

OK, this hike is actually really kid-friendly.  But, as those of you with small kids already know, there are good days and bad days.  Some days the kids are troopers and put up with more than you thought they could.  Other days, even the most kid-friendly locations can be ardruous affars.  While admiring the below scenic pictures, imagine an infant screaming and a toddler whining.  In fact, most of these pictures were hurriedly snapped as my infant started crying literally 1 second after the stroller stopped.  EVERY. SINGLE.  TIME.

I think the kids would have had a good time on another day.

So, on to the hike.  As I mentioned, this is more of a botanical garden with a waterfall at the end.  There are many types of flowers, trees, and critters from Hawaii and beyond.  There are even some huts and sites erected to educate the visitors about the ancient Hawaiians. 

There is a main paved path that takes you directly to the waterfall if you like.  It roughly follows a meandering stream for about 3/4 mile.  There are many offshoot trails that lead you through scenic flora. 
Unfortunately, this flora also attracts mosquitoes by the droves.  So, bug spray is a must.

So we finally arrived at the waterfall.  It was pretty amazing that such a pretty waterfall is so easily accessible.
 

They allow people to swim up and touch the waterfall.  So there were many people swimming out there to get their pics next to the water.  It makes for a good time, but not so good pictures.
Regardless, I was able to get some nice people-free pics.  Next time, I will get there early enough that I won't have to deal with too many people.

We stayed at the waterfall until it started to rain.  Hard.  So we had to hurry and rush the kids back to the entrance before they got too wet and cranky.  My daughter seemed to love the rain at first.  She was smiling and laughing at everyone that we passed.  My son, on the other hand, was miserable sitting in the stroller.

So I am geeked out that I figured out how to upload a GPS file and post a map of my hike.  For your viewing pleasure...


View Waimea Valley Falls in a larger map



I am also geeked out that I got to play with the polarizing filter.  Check out the difference...

Before I adjusted the filter

After I adjusted the filter

Quite a difference, right?


And I will leave you with some more pics from the hike...