Hiking the famous Kalalau Trail
Tuesday, June 8, 2010 at 03:10PM 
If you have ever been to Kauai and are a hiker there's a good chance that you didn't pass up hiking at least some part of the Kalalau Trail. There was no way I was going to miss it. Why fly 4,600 miles and pass it up? But pass it up is what we almost did. We saved the hike for the last day of our trip. We woke up early that day and it was raining like every other morning but you could tell this rain was set in and it sounded like it could rain all day. (The other mornings it would stop by sunrise and didn't do much harm to our plans.) I was thinking I should have listened to my wife who said "You shouldn't wait until the last day, what if it rains?" We went back and forth and ultimately decided to just go for it. The trail in its whole length is 11 miles. We had decided to do the first two miles to Hanakapi`ai beach and then take a two mile spur trail to Hanakapi`ai falls, 8 miles round trip. It was sprinkling as we started on the trail but the it soon stopped as we gained elevation. The start of the trail is very rocky and gradually goes up and then you reach the dirt or in our case the muddy part of the trail. The trail hugs the cliffs for awhile offering views of the coastline and the cliffs ahead. After a few slips and falls and crossing the river for the first time of many, we made it to the beach. The ocean at the beach is very dangerous to swim in and there was actually a sign that was notched every time someone drowned. We took a break and then hit the trail to the falls. Pretty quickly the trail became narrow and muddy.
