Thursday, January 30, 2014

Fun with Fitness: Kauai Day 6

We started out day 6 by heading out to the Opaekaa Falls which are one of the most accessible major falls on the island.  This waterfall is only about 5 minutes off of the main road and easily well worth the trip.



Directly across from the falls is a great view of the Wailua River Valley along with plenty of the local chickens that were taking in the scenery along with us.


Next we drove around the coast to one of my all time favorite hiking trails, the Kalalau Trail.  We had an amazing overview of this trail on Day 3 by land, Day 4 by helicopter, and Day 5 by speed boat.


The road to the North Shore is marked by amazing sights both off the coast and inland.  This is an inland cave next to the main highway.  The white residue on the walls is salt, evidence that this cave was carved from the rock by towering waves, pounding the shore. 

The road winds north around the island until it ends at Ke'e Beach.  This beach is sheltered by a reef and often provides calm swimming and snorkeling, but as always check the local surf reports before entering the water.  


Ke'e Beach serves as the trailhead for the Kalalau Trail.


The trail starts of steep and rocky and rarely lets up.  Under normal conditions it can also be quite slippery in some sections, making for pretty challenging climbing.


Sweeping ocean views  pop up after less than 1/2 a mile of hiking and continue over the next several miles.




Two miles in is my all time favorite beach, Hanakapi'i.  The trail stretches for 11 miles, but this is as far as you can hike without a permit.  One of the many reasons I love this beach is because the view looking up the canyon is of a river descending down from steep, jagged cliffs and feeding into the Pacific.









And of course we ended the day with another amazing sunset back at Ke'e Beach.