Hanakapiai Trail

This is both a well known and a very popular trail on Kauai. What made this appealing to me was, I had never done this and many others have. Distance wise it is close to 2 miles from trailhead to Hanakapiai Beach. The trail has and elevation change up to 800 feet, then gradually descends to sea level. That gradual climb can be tough at times, but with the clean blue ocean on the right makes the pain go away. The trail is in excellent condition and there were contract workers making improvements along the way. Doing an Internet search and choosing photo’s is a nice way to view the scenery. Expect these 2 miles to take just over an hour, expect mud and please don’t try to stay clean. I started up the trail at 6:15, the sun had not come up and it was dark. Nothing was open along the way so I had no coffee to start the morning. That was a bummer.

Along the trail to the beach, there were sections of big bees buzzing around and pollinating various flowers, smaller waterfall’s with streams flowing across the trail and lots of mud. Half way to the beach, it got light out. Since this is on the North Side of the island, I did not actually see the sunrise. That happens over on the east side. No worries though, having light was good. About 45 minutes later, the trail transitioned to a downward angle to the beach. Once at the bottom I surveyed the surroundings.

I chose to make a river crossing in the water and not hop from rock to rock in order to get to the other side. Once there, the shoes came off, wrung out the socks, rested for a few minutes, suited up and continued to Hanakapiai Waterfall. This took just over an hour to go these additional 2 miles as the going was muddy, water crossings, though the trail not as steep. Along the way, there are bamboo groves, kukui trees, guava trees and I believe breadfruit trees also ginger. Lots of vegetation. It dawned on me, why after a hard rain, kukui nuts are all over the beaches. Reason is they are washed down these rivers. The tree canopy is fairly thick so GPS was dropping in and out, unless I held it in a certain position. GPS came in handy on the way back.

Words can’t describe Hanakapiai Fall’s. I chose not to proceed into the danger area as was indicated by a sign. It mentioned that falling rocks can be dangerous. Since those falling rocks have the potential to drop from 1000 feet, it’s a no brainer. After taking some photo’s and resting, I started back. This was pretty uneventful, took several photo’s, enjoyed the sights. By this time, there were more people on the trail. Because I started out before dawn, I was actually the second person to reach the falls that day. Leaving early does have it’s advantages as I had the remainder of the day left, and it was about 11:30. Oh, by that time, there will be no more parking at Ke’e Beach.