this week in kaua'i
I started this post in the Denver airport, which I recommend. The overall experience is just average, but they recycle and have free wifi and lots of places to charge things. Everything I need. Except maybe a shower.
Where I have been, though, is Kaua'i. Kaua'i is pretty amazing when you get into it (the last trip there was very short, so I just saw the surface of things, which is lovely the way a postcard or travel magazine is lovely). This time we got to climb around on things. Alas, I never made time for serious snorkeling, just a little paddle out from the beach on my first day, but that left more time for land-based stuff.
I'd like to get more practice hiking - it's been awhile, and like anything it gets more comfortable & therefore more daring each time I do it.
Anyhow, some highlights of stuff we did, in case any of you plan such a trip yourselves. We stayed on the east side of Poipu, which was an easy drive to stuff on the west/leeward half of the island, and just a little too far driving home from way up northeast. At least the first day, when we went to Kaena, we were still all OMG Kaua'i is gorgeous about every little vista, so we didn't notice it was slow going in the car.
Limahuli Garden: My experience of botanical gardens in HI is that they are nothing like the placid gardens you'd find elsewhere in the US; they're just wilder. This one was not surprising in that regard and has an impressively categorized and labeled set of native and endemic plants. It's a gentle stroll, though you do walk up a bit of a mountain, with some of the most awe-striking views we got of the east coast.
Kilauea Lighthouse: Not a walk at all, just a tourist attraction, but it's an amazing view and the most northern part of the main Hawai'ian islands (intriguingly, the most eastern point is also a lighthouse, and one I'll have to add to the agenda for a future Oahu trip). I now get why people are so excited about lighthouses. They're pretty awesome.
Keahua Arboretum: We meant to walk a trail up here, but weren't entirely sure we'd found the arboretum itself, let alone said trailhead. If we were in the right place, it's more of a picnic & quiet contemplation spot (or a jump into the swimming hole spot).
Random trails within Koke'e State Park: Yeah. So, these trails aren't very well labeled. The big impressive ones are, but the little ones are half driveways and unpaved roads. I'm pretty sure we were supposed to walk some of the stretches we drove, and the forest trails were deeply boring. But good for a warm up or just a nice walk in the woods. No worries about sunburn, at least.
The Iliau Nature Loop (at the trailhead for Kukui Trail, which goes down & then back up Waimea Canyon): OMG. BEST CANYON VIEW EVER. Includes a nice straight shot of what I think is Waipo'o Falls. It's a short walk around a big stand of iliau, a plant that grows only on Kaua'i. Gorgeous in winter, I expect it's beyond amazing when the plants all flower in the spring.
Pihea overlook & associated ridge hike: The views on this walk got to a point where we stopped being impressed by impressive views. Lots of up and down & some slightly muddy climbing even on our sunny day; this is probably a hot mess right after a rain (but being covered in mud can be fun, right?). We'd meant to continue on to the Alakai Swamp boardwalk, but I was getting tired and whiny & the terrain was getting rougher. The hike back down to the overlook was really easy, so we could've gone on longer. Lots of families and older folk attempted some stretch of this trail, and even more walked out the first few hundred feet or so then turned back.
Sleeping Giant/Nou Nou mountain: If you start this midday, it's 3.5-5 hours up and down a small mountain in occasionally sweltering heat. Pick a different time, I think. It was mostly a reasonable trail, selected because I wimped out on the steeper hike to Hanikapi'ai beach, but one stretch I basically clawed my way up and down a rock wall with a bit of a cliff on either side. It was terrifying. It's nice to be that scared now and then, though that was certainly not what I thought at the time. And someone else described that trail as appropriate for "lazy asthmatics"! Crazy! Maybe lazy asthmatics over 6'5"? The side trip up to the cave near the tippy top is well worth the rock wall clawing.
We went to a few beaches, saw some roadside attractions (the usual "pull over and look at this waterfall" thing, and some of the long stretch of boardwalk you can walk on the east coast) and walked through towns and such, too, but you don't really need commentary on the terrain of Kapa'a.
Good trip! The company was also lovely & I had a lot of fish tacos, though my appetite for them has not diminished. [Yeah, yeah. Go ahead and make your crass jokes. I'll wait over here.]
Where I have been, though, is Kaua'i. Kaua'i is pretty amazing when you get into it (the last trip there was very short, so I just saw the surface of things, which is lovely the way a postcard or travel magazine is lovely). This time we got to climb around on things. Alas, I never made time for serious snorkeling, just a little paddle out from the beach on my first day, but that left more time for land-based stuff.
I'd like to get more practice hiking - it's been awhile, and like anything it gets more comfortable & therefore more daring each time I do it.
Anyhow, some highlights of stuff we did, in case any of you plan such a trip yourselves. We stayed on the east side of Poipu, which was an easy drive to stuff on the west/leeward half of the island, and just a little too far driving home from way up northeast. At least the first day, when we went to Kaena, we were still all OMG Kaua'i is gorgeous about every little vista, so we didn't notice it was slow going in the car.
Limahuli Garden: My experience of botanical gardens in HI is that they are nothing like the placid gardens you'd find elsewhere in the US; they're just wilder. This one was not surprising in that regard and has an impressively categorized and labeled set of native and endemic plants. It's a gentle stroll, though you do walk up a bit of a mountain, with some of the most awe-striking views we got of the east coast.
Kilauea Lighthouse: Not a walk at all, just a tourist attraction, but it's an amazing view and the most northern part of the main Hawai'ian islands (intriguingly, the most eastern point is also a lighthouse, and one I'll have to add to the agenda for a future Oahu trip). I now get why people are so excited about lighthouses. They're pretty awesome.
Keahua Arboretum: We meant to walk a trail up here, but weren't entirely sure we'd found the arboretum itself, let alone said trailhead. If we were in the right place, it's more of a picnic & quiet contemplation spot (or a jump into the swimming hole spot).
Random trails within Koke'e State Park: Yeah. So, these trails aren't very well labeled. The big impressive ones are, but the little ones are half driveways and unpaved roads. I'm pretty sure we were supposed to walk some of the stretches we drove, and the forest trails were deeply boring. But good for a warm up or just a nice walk in the woods. No worries about sunburn, at least.
The Iliau Nature Loop (at the trailhead for Kukui Trail, which goes down & then back up Waimea Canyon): OMG. BEST CANYON VIEW EVER. Includes a nice straight shot of what I think is Waipo'o Falls. It's a short walk around a big stand of iliau, a plant that grows only on Kaua'i. Gorgeous in winter, I expect it's beyond amazing when the plants all flower in the spring.
Pihea overlook & associated ridge hike: The views on this walk got to a point where we stopped being impressed by impressive views. Lots of up and down & some slightly muddy climbing even on our sunny day; this is probably a hot mess right after a rain (but being covered in mud can be fun, right?). We'd meant to continue on to the Alakai Swamp boardwalk, but I was getting tired and whiny & the terrain was getting rougher. The hike back down to the overlook was really easy, so we could've gone on longer. Lots of families and older folk attempted some stretch of this trail, and even more walked out the first few hundred feet or so then turned back.
Sleeping Giant/Nou Nou mountain: If you start this midday, it's 3.5-5 hours up and down a small mountain in occasionally sweltering heat. Pick a different time, I think. It was mostly a reasonable trail, selected because I wimped out on the steeper hike to Hanikapi'ai beach, but one stretch I basically clawed my way up and down a rock wall with a bit of a cliff on either side. It was terrifying. It's nice to be that scared now and then, though that was certainly not what I thought at the time. And someone else described that trail as appropriate for "lazy asthmatics"! Crazy! Maybe lazy asthmatics over 6'5"? The side trip up to the cave near the tippy top is well worth the rock wall clawing.
We went to a few beaches, saw some roadside attractions (the usual "pull over and look at this waterfall" thing, and some of the long stretch of boardwalk you can walk on the east coast) and walked through towns and such, too, but you don't really need commentary on the terrain of Kapa'a.
Good trip! The company was also lovely & I had a lot of fish tacos, though my appetite for them has not diminished. [Yeah, yeah. Go ahead and make your crass jokes. I'll wait over here.]