I wasn’t able to do any hiking the last time we were in Kauai, so I made a point of bringing my hiking boots and told Lina I would be going out every other day. Once we finally got settled on the island, I started to notice warnings all over telling us to be careful during hikes and to watch out for flash floods. I turns out that there was supposed to be a major storm headed to the island after the blizzard warning for the big island. Every weather report for Kauai says it is going to rain all the time in December, so I spent an hour researching the weather at each of the spots I was looking to hike at, and decided to take a chance on the first hike in the Waimea Canyon State Park, which is described as:
Waimea Canyon, on Kauai’s West Side, is described as “The Grand Canyon of the Pacific.” Although not as big or as old as its Arizona cousin, you won’t encounter anything like this geological wonder in Hawaii. Stretching 14 miles long, 1 mile wide and more than 3,600 feet deep, the Waimea Canyon Lookout provides panoramic views of crested buttes, rugged crags and deep valley gorges. The grand inland vistas go on for miles.
Unfortunately, weather and my schedule for the month or so before this trip didn’t allow me to get ready, and this hike was a bitch. It started by descending 2,000ft over 2 miles, or so, and it was slippery as hell for at least half of it.
I started looking for a walking stick almost immediately because I was slipping and sliding so much in the first few steps down. Luckily we learned that Kauai will provide everything we new when we took a guided tour of the country the day before, and it turned out to be true. I found the perfect walking stick almost immediately, which helped the descent immediately.
The first third of the hike was your typical tropical jungle and I was the only person on the trail because I started out really early hoping to beat the rain. The weather was overcast at the start with no wind, so the first mile or so was almost silent, but I started to worry that the trail would turn into a river if it did start raining and I started to have second thoughts about the whole thing.
Then I hit the dirt descent, which seemed to go straight down. This was less slick, but then the helicopters started their tour of the waterfall across the valley. They then went by every 10 minutes, or so, which wrecked the entire soundscape. We will never ever take a helicopter tour in the future because they are almost as bad as jet-skis on the lake.
Then the trail started looking like a normal forest on the mainland with the occasional giant tropical bush until I reached the river. I scared the loudest pair of grouse I’ve ever heard, and one of the most colorful birds I’ve ever seen, even if I just got a glimpse of both.
The trek up was brutally steep and seemed to go on forever, but luckily I still had my walking stick that helped make it manageable. I never did manage to get a groove going because it was too steep and too slick, so it was a slog the whole way up. I think this was the slowest time I’ve ever had during a hike, but it was beautiful and the rain never came!
Here are the stats:
- Distance = 5.18 mi
- Elevation Gain = 2,198.2 ft
- Time = 3:06:01
- Average Moving Speed = 2.9 mph
- Min elevation = 2,984 ft
Here are the pics of Kukui Trail:
Here are the pics of the Iliau Nature Loop Trail:
Here is a picture of Stevie Sticks, the random branch that Kauai provided when I needed something to keep me upright, which happened to be the perfect size for the trek:
