Aloha friends and family, and Mele Kalikimaka (Merry Christmas)/Happy Holidays! I hope you are all doing well and am thankful to have seen some of you already since coming back to the East Coast about a week ago and excited to see more of you in the next couple weeks. Although it's only two days from Christmas at the time of my posting this, the events of this blog post happened two months ago.
October was an exciting month for me as I geared up to hike the beautiful Kalalau Trail along the Napali Coast of Kauai shortly after returning home from Bali. (You can read the Bali post here.) The trail is very popular and we had to make campsite reservations three months ago, which is how far in advance the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources opens up campsites for booking. We originally had a group of six of us going, but Drake dropped out before the hike as he was injured. The remaining five of us on the trip were Jen, Emily, my girlfriend Melanie, Eric, and me from left to right in the picture below.
Our adventure started on Sunday October 16, when all of us except Jen, who had to wrap up some work, flew over to Lihue airport in Kauai. We rented a sweet Mustang convertible that was super fun to ride around in and impractical to cram groceries into, which is what we spent the late morning and early afternoon doing.
By the time we'd bought food and fuel it was late afternoon and we settled into our Airbnb. There are very few Airbnbs on Kauai; one of the few places on the island where they exist is a town called Princeville, which is an interesting cross between a planned community of upscale homes and a resort. Many of the units are owned by full-time residents while many are rented out regularly. There are amenities like pools and community centers that are accessible by card, like room keys in hotels, to permanent residents and tourists alike. It's a lovely place and I've very much enjoyed staying there both times* I've been to Kauai, but I don't know if I'd want to live there full-time since it feels very much like a fancy resort and there are probably tourists there all the time. We took advantage of these nice amenities and played ping pong, shot a basketball around, and swam in the pool and hot tub.
* I also stayed in Princeville when my parents came. You can read that blog post here.
The next day was our one full day before starting the hike. We were torn between heading out for a big adventure and laying low at the resort. With the exception of Eric, who was determined to take a helicopter ride of Kauai, we opted to lay low and hang out at the resort and neighboring town of Hanalei for the day. I think this was the right call since we were able to save our energy and bodies for the trail. We lounged by the pool at the resort before heading over to Hanalei to see Hanalei Bay and eat dinner in town. It was a relaxing day and we got back to pack and finish watching 8 Mile, the movie we'd chosen to inspire us for our ambitious trek, before getting to bed early.
We got up early on Tuesday, the first day of our hike, and met Emily and Jen's landlord who lives in Princeville. He generously drove us to Ha'ena State Park, and we were at the trailhead for the Kalalau Trail about 15 minutes later. After making some pre-hike adjustments to our backpacks and using the restroom one final time, we started our hike around 7:30am.
The first two miles were familiar for me since I'd hiked them with my parents in February. The terrain is beautiful, like almost all of the trail, but also the most crowded since day visitors are allowed to visit and hike up to the two-mile marker; the rest of the trail is for campers with reservations. I felt comfortable during the first two miles since I knew what to expect. After two miles, we arrived at Hanakapi’ai Beach, a pretty beach with rough waves and large black rocks.
We went on for several miles after the beach before taking a lunch break at the Hanakoa campsite, somewhere between miles 6 and 6.5. After lunch our pace slowed a little but we kept pressing on. Around mile 7 there's a very narrow stretch of trail, probably only about 1.5-2 feet wide at points, called Crawler's Ledge. We leaned into the mountain side of the trail as much as we could because the open side dropped into a very steep descent, where it would have been very difficult or impossible to stop ourselves from falling and getting seriously injured or dying. Luckily the ground was dry and sturdy, and we took our time and made it through Crawler's Ledge confidently.
The trail stays narrow for a couple miles after Crawler's Ledge, but when the trail is dry it's manageable. We went at a slow and steady pace with some breaks to refuel. The last descent on the trail is a cool traverse of a red clay mountain side where we saw several goats at the bottom grazing and running together.
You can see Kalalau Beach in the distance in the picture below.
After that it wasn’t much longer before we made it to the Kalalau stream, where we refilled our waters and then continued the final half mile to get to the Kalalau campsite. There were many open campsites along the beach to choose from and we walked farther to be close to the beach.
After ten hours of hiking we made it to our campsite at 5:30pm and set up our tents in the last sliver of daylight. We walked and chilled on the beautiful Kalalau Beach and swam in the ocean for a glorious half hour before it was too dark. It reminded me a little of Makua Beach on the west side of O'ahu in that both beaches are remote and gorgeous. Kalalau Beach is much more isolated, though, as it's only accessible by hiking the 11-mile trail or kayaking out if the ocean is calm enough, and its splendor is unparalleled. Dramatic cliffs reaching thousands of feet into the sky plunge into the ocean in some of the most precipitous drops I've ever seen. Color abounds everywhere with vibrant reds from the clay on the trail, lush green from the engulfing valley, and a variety of blues from the waterfalls, ocean, and sky. The only sound is from the waves crashing. It's an awesome place and its allure is stronger than that of any other place I've visited.
Although we only had about a half hour to enjoy the beach in daylight, it was a magical experience. The waves were some of the most powerful waves I've swam in, and they crashed sporadically with the distance between break points changing significantly from wave to wave, which seemed fitting for such a remote and wild place. I'm quite comfortable in the ocean from swimming in waves at my grandparents' beach house in Bay Head, NJ, but I had to stay focused in this ocean since the waves were fierce and the current was strong. It felt so good to be in the ocean after a long day of hiking.
After enjoying the sunset and afterglow on the beach, we went back to our campsite, made dinner, and hung out by the fire. Our exhaustion from hiking all day helped us fall asleep, which was especially essential for Mel and me since we didn't have a sleeping pad in our tent. We were expecting the ground to be soft, but it was pretty rocky and firm. We considered sleeping on the beach but decided against it.
The next morning we were glad for our decision to stay in our tent at the campground because it started raining around 6am. We stayed in our tent hoping to outlast the rain, but every time it felt like it was petering off we would poke our heads out and it would start coming down again. It rained consistently until about 10am, at which point it finally slowed to a drizzle. By then the ground and all our stuff around the campsite were soaked.
Our original plan was to hike all 11 miles of the trail on Tuesday, sleep at the Kalalau campsite on Tuesday night, spend all day Wednesday chilling at the beach and hiking into the Kalalau Valley to explore, then wake up early on Thursday morning and hike from the Kalalau campsite back to the entrance of Ha'ena State Park. With the rain, we reconsidered our plan and left around midday on Wednesday to start hiking back, figuring it would take us longer to hike back in muddy conditions.
It was a tough decision; we'd been looking forward to spending time on Kalalau Beach and truly relaxing there, but at the same time it wasn't going to be nearly as enjoyable with gray skies and drizzles. We took a while packing up our campsite. Energy was low because of the rain and dreariness, and we also had two days to hike back to the entrance so we could afford to hike at a more leisurely pace. After finally packing up, we made it about a half mile through mud to the Kalalau stream, where we spent a long time filling up our water bottles. Our water filters were filtering more slowly because there was lots of dirt and sediment in the water from all the rain.
By the time we had our water bottles full it was early/mid afternoon and we were only about a half mile from the campsite, which was challenging mentally, since we'd planned to spend the day enjoying the serenity and beauty of Kalalau Beach and Kalalau Valley. Instead we were pushed by nature to turn right back around and hike again after taxing our bodies and minds the day before. We'd counted on Wednesday as a day to recharge, but it became another day of hard work.
We hiked back the way we came at a much slower pace because of some nagging injuries in the group and the worse conditions. There was a stretch around the 8 mile marker that hadn't been particularly noteworthy when we hiked it the day before that became extremely perilous after the prolonged rain. This part of the trail was dirt, so it became mud with all the rain, which was tough as the trail slanted down from the cliffs towards the ocean. There was virtually no traction in the mud on some parts so we had to cross those parts by finding footholds on sturdier parts of the trail or grab onto roots in cases when establishing secure ground was impossible. Furthermore, the trail eroded more as each person dug in and displaced mud with their boots. All this made this seemingly innocuous stretch of trail quite treacherous after the rain. Thankfully we all made it past this stretch without any of us slipping, since a slip likely would've meant falling for a long, long distance because there was nothing to grab onto; there were just sheer cliffs and, ultimately, the ocean below. (We were unsurprised to learn the next day that the trail had been closed, at the entrance, on Wednesday due to dangerous conditions. We didn't know that when we were hiking since there's no service on the trail.)
The above video and photo are from when the trail was dry when we hiked towards the beach on Tuesday. Hopefully they give a good sense of how muddy and slippery the trail can become after rain.
We arrived at a helicopter pad and unofficial campsite around the 8 mile marker after this stretch. A camper at Kalalau we'd passed earlier in the day told us this was a viable camping option and we debated whether to stay there for the night or not. The stretch we'd just made it by rattled us but we also weren't sure whether conditions would worsen overnight or what Crawler's Ledge would be like. We went on after some deliberation and found that Crawler's Ledge was more difficult than the day before, but less dangerous than the muddy cliff we'd just survived.
We made it past Crawler's Ledge and arrived at the Hanakoa campsite, which we had to ourselves because of the trail closure, a little after sunset. We put on our headlamps and set up camp before relaxing for a little bit. We hadn't had any time during the day to hang out without stress or a rush to get somewhere so it was nice to enjoy our meals and share stories and laughs before bed.
The next day we got off to a leisurely start since we only needed to hike the remaining 6-6.5 miles to get back to civilization. We ate breakfast, packed up camp, and hit the trail around 10:30. The weather cooperated and the rain held off, allowing us to relatively easily cross the stream near the campsite that was roaring the night before. The trail was still muddy and the group had some injuries that slowed us down a bit. We also took a long break at Hanakapi’ai Beach, eating lunch for around an hour. We kind of lost track of time and didn’t make it to the end of the trail until after 4pm.
Our plan was to hitchhike back to the airport, but by the time we'd swam at Ke'e beach at the entrance of the park, showered, and changed into fresh clothes it was closer to 5. We had some urgency to find a ride quickly for our 7:40pm flight from Lihue, on the opposite side of the island over an hour-long drive away. We found some people with enough space to take a few of us, so Emily, Jen, and Eric went with them and Mel and I hung back to find another ride.
We started asking everyone leaving the park for a ride but most of them were taking the shuttle, which required a reservation made ahead of time, and the others had small cars that didn't have enough space for us. We asked if we could pay to get onto the shuttle but the driver and park ranger checking the list told us no. Around 5:40 our odds of finding a ride were looking bleak. The park ranger started to sympathize with us and talked to one of the drivers who said he'd be able to take us on his last run of the day.
A little after 6, the driver picked us up along with the other passengers heading back to the normal drop-off spot where he dropped off everyone but us. When he had to refuel en route to the airport, he told us we had to hide behind the seats of the shuttle so his fellow drivers wouldn't see us since he technically wasn't supposed to take people past the drop-off point. Mel and I hid behind the seat, feeling like we were part of a James Bond movie, before safely exiting the fueling station and continuing onto the airport, where our driver kindly dropped us off. He chewed us out big time for being in the situation we were, but it was a small price to pay for us making our flight. Even after he'd agreed to take us we weren't sure if we'd make it on time. Luckily the airport was empty and we blitzed through security to meet up with our friends and catch the flight home.
Overall, it was an amazing experience. I loved the challenge, excitement, and camaraderie of it. The scenery is astonishing and getting to be so intimate with such a secluded and beautiful part of the world is incredible. The only bummer was not getting to fully enjoy the greatness and solitude of Kalalau Beach at the end, but that gives us a reason to go back and spend more time there so we can see it in the sunshine. I'm grateful for the opportunity to travel and hike with such a wonderful group. That's all on the Kalalau Trail. Mahalo for reading!
P.S. In case you want A LOT more photos of the trail, you can view them here.
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