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!