Kalaulau Trail

The water was the most incredible color I've ever seen

Trail view of Le'e Beach (our starting point)

Kauai is known as the "Garden Isle," and today we discovered the truth in its name.  The Kalaulau Trail was recommended as a "must do" activity in Kauai by numerous people- and we agree- do not miss this hiking opportunity.  We made a day of driving up the North Coast of Kauai checking out the beautiful beaches of this island.  The road ends along the Na Pali Coast, where we began our hike from sea level at Ke'e Beach.  We only hiked the first 2 miles (which took ~ 2 hours), and constantly changed elevation, taking in the views.  We hiked into the first tropical valley to Hanakaiai Beach.  

These trees have incredible root systems that start well above ground

 The trail was challenging.  It was very tropical and lush greenery surrounded you the entire time.  There was a fruity aroma on most of the trail, which we discovered wasfrom thousands of guava trees around us- fresh guava fruits had fallen all along the trail.  The views of the Pacific were absolutely breath-taking!

 Here at the Hanakapiai beach, we scaled large boulders in the stream, waded through the lagoon, and played for an hour on the beach.  There were caves hollowed out from volcanic activity that were pretty deep.  The sand was the softest we've encountered in Hawaii, and your feet sank a good 6-9 inches in the sand when the waves came in.  There were multiple warnings about not going into the ocean to swim (see sign & tally death count).  We understood why quickly- when the powerful swells came in- the water would rush up to our knees and we could feel the power of the ocean working hard to pull us out into the deep waters.

one of the caves on the beach

Apparently, past the beach another 2 miles is the Hanakapiai waterfall & pools.  Some friends we made from Arizona said it was definitely worth another 2 miles.  We would have needed more time in the day to complete this part of the journey, but we'd love to do it again in the future!  If you do this sometime- we highly recommend taking a Camelbak (we couldn't have made it without ours!) and some sturdy shoes.  A snack would also be a good idea.