Day 7 in Kauai

WARNING! Picture Intensive! It's taken me days to get this post up because blogger wouldn't cooperate! It seems to be having trouble loading pictures. But finally, more pictures for you to enjoy.

Day 7 really kicked my butt! We wanted to see the NaPali Coast and there are only two ways to do it: hire a helicopter and hike. My Eagle Scout husband just had to hike that trail! Now this trail is not for the faint of heart. It's up and down cliffs often very rocky, steep and along the edge; muddy and wet in most of the places that you wish it weren't! The Kalalau trail is right off a very popular Hanakapi'ai Beach (don't ask me how it's pronounced!) so we had to park a half a mile from the start of the trail. You can go 11 miles out on this trail but we did the 2 miles to the farther beach with views of the coastline. Most people that do the 11 miles backpack in and stay overnight. There is a waterfall four miles in and if you start early enough you can do that in one day. I'm a wimp; we did just the two miles (and it took me 4 hours to do 4 miles). But the views were worth it!

This is the beach that we started from. Gorgeous sand beach and fairly calm waves. Of course there is always a sign that says dangerous rip tides and strong currents but there was a lifeguard on duty here. Lots of beaches don't have life guards.

So we started our climb and looking back this is the beach we had left behind.

This was one of the nicer spots along the trail: fairly level, not muddy. I just love all the jungle like atmosphere! And as usual Tom is taking a picture of me while I am taking a picture of him.

Here we are about a half mile from the start of the trail. With hours to go before us. Completely unsuspecting of what's to come. You can just start to get a glimpse of the coastline behind us.

Our first full glimpse of the NaPali coast.

And here's what most of the trail looked like only steeper!

Another coastline picture from atop the trail!

And finally out to the beach 2 miles from where we started. Can you see the little rock sculptures atop some of the rocks. They are like graffiti. There were tons of them among the rocks. Some were just to say "I was here," and other were tributes to the 81 people who died on this beach. There was actually a running tally on a sign.

If you crawled over all the rocks you got to Kalalau Beach. The waves were amazing out here. And the guys were taking a break from surfing. Now that's dedication to carry your surf board out here for 2 miles in and 2 miles out.

More of the gorgeous coastline!

Not many pictures on the way back. Too tired to pull out the camera. But I did get a picture of the trail sign on our return.

We visited Hanalei Bay on the drive back to our condo. Of course we had to walk this beach too. There was a lifeguard at this beach and the waves were rather low. Nice beach for swimming.

And gorgeous mountains in the background.

This is Hanalei National Wildlife Preserve. When they stopped growing taro on the island many of the water fowl lost their habitat. So this "farming project" brought back taro fields to help preserve some of the native wildlife. I loved the little plots and all the colors of the valley!

And the sun sets on Day 7! Thanks for joining me today!

Donna