Another rooster wake up call, but this time we didn’t mind because we wanted to get an early start on our planned 11 mile loop hike. We packed up our packs and put everything else in our tent. We drove up to the Awa'awapuhi trailhead, parked, then started road walking back to camp. The sky was completely clear, we noticed the back side of Wall peak while walking off the high plateau down to camp. Unfortunately, Mat realized he left his coffee in the car. We got back to the campground with about 40 minutes until the restaurant opened so we sat at the picnic tables killing time and watching the chickens. Finally at 9:00 AM the restaurant opened so Mat was able to get his coffee. He thoughtfully bought me a cup but I don’t like drinking coffee before hikes, or any kind of exercise, so he got to double fist coffee for the first mile or so of our hike. The Nu'alolo trailhead was just south of the campground so we started out.
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| Nu'alolo Trail |
We followed the Nu'alolo trail through more Kauai forests, 3.4 miles out towards the sea until we finally came out on top of the Na Pali cliffs with views of the gorgeous Na Pali coast line 3000 ft below us. We continued past the trail end since the cliff finger was wide and free of much plant life. We found ourselves a quiet little spot far out where we could see down the 17 miles of Na Pali coastline and cliffs and look out over the bright blue of the Pacific. Tour boats looked like little white dots on the blue water and tour helicopters came flying over the ridge and dropped 1000 ft below us into the canyon to get a closer view of the waterfalls. One of the neatest things was being at a height and angle over the pacific to see the underwater shelf of the island slide out from the coast and drop to differing depths before dropping off into darkness. We sat and enjoyed our lunches overlooking one of the most beautiful areas in the world.
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| Nu'alolo Trail |
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| Nu'alolo Trail over the Na Pali coastline |
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| Na Pali coastline from the Nu'alolo Trail |
After a couple of hours, we made our way back to the trail to continue on our loop. Backtracking, we heard the mountain goats but still couldn’t see them. We traversed along the top of the cliff, looking for mountain goat all the while. Finally we spotted them! We hadn’t spotted them before because they weren’t white, they were black! Amazing how animals adapt to their environment. White goats would have been so easy to spot amongst the dark volcanic rock but black & brown goats are nearly invisible. Way cool. We admired them for a little bit before getting back to our trail junction with the Na'alolo Cliff Trail, a trail that traversed the back of the canyon and connected with the Awa'awapui trail on the other side of the canyon. Once again we went as far out towards the ocean as we could to get a different view. The guide book stated that this north side of the canyon has a better view than the south side we just came from. I definitely beg to differ. The south side not only had a nice view into the little canyon and the ocean but also an unobstructed view of the entire Na Pali Coast line! The north side did not stick as far out into the ocean so it was impossible to see down the coast, either north or south.
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| Awa'awapui Trail |
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| Awa'awapui Trail |
We stayed here for only a half hour, snapping photos of some mountain goats on a crazy steep cliff 3000 ft above the canyon floor. We then made our way back up from the ocean cliffs back to where our car was parked. Although the decline to the cliffs on the Nu'alolo trail was steep and a bit rough, the Awa'awapui trail ascending back up to the plateau was nicely graded. We made it back to the car without any issues, headed back to camp to take another cold shower, then back into the car. We dropped down to Waimea to get some food. We decided to eat at the Shrimp Shack for some coconut shrimp with fries and sweet thai shrimp on rice. While I waited for our order to cook up, Mat grabbed some beer from the grocery store. All food items in hand, we jumped back into the car and went right back up to camp. It was amazing to feel the temp difference between the highlands on the plateau and the lowlands along the coast. The temperature reading in rearview mirror dropped 10 degrees in the 15 minutes it took to drive back up to camp!
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| Crazy goat on a steep cliff |
We enjoyed our meal at camp before getting back into the car and driving back up to the Kalaulau Overlook. The plan was to watch our last sunset over the Kalaulau canyon but we realized when we got there that the canyon was too north facing, the sun would set over the land, not over the ocean as we'd hope. But the angled setting sun did play a dramatic show on the steep ravines and spires of the north cliff face so we sat and drank our hawaiian beverages watching the north cliff face grow dark. Eventually we made our way back to camp and to sleep. Our last night out under the stars.
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| Sunset overlooking the Kalaulau Valley |
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