Did you push F11 to see these picture full screen??? The 11-mile Kalalau Trail is the most famous hike in all Hawaii.
The trail starts just past Ke'e Beach at the State Park. Since this Beach is accessible by car, it's filled with people. The state built it on land that they repossessed from Elizabeth Taylor's brother who had turned it over to hippies. The love scene from "Thornbirds" was filmed here if you're into movie trivia.
The trail climbs and then descends five river valleys before ending at a cliff wall. We only walked the first leg -- a two mile hike which you can walk without a permit and is of moderate difficulty for fit, middle age hikers.
Beyond the first two mile leg, you have two options. Proceed to the end of the trail (another 9 miles and easily a full day's hike so you need to bring backpack, tent, etc.) To make this hike, you need a permit which are restricted....
...or you can head south and hike to the Hanakapi'ai Falls on a trail that is not maintained. All the guidebooks and fellow walkers returning from there said the hike was worth the effort. However, we didn't bring enough water to get there and back to our car -- an additional 6 miles in the August heat.
The trail we were on (from the State Park parking lot to Hanakapi'ai beach) was maintained after a fashion. This state park gets an annual budget of less than $26 per acre so they must choose their maintenance battles carefully.
These pictures are of the mouth of the Hanakapi'ai stream as it flows into the Pacific, creating a sand beach accessible only by hikers and kayakers.
Coral ledges caused the different variations in color in this sparkling blue sea. To reach the sandy beach, you must wade across a pleasant lagoon.
The total trail has a Sierra Club difficulty rating of 9 (with 10 being equivalent to climbing the Empire State Building.) Luckily we had Fay Wray who was up to the task...
...unfortunately, this was our equivalent to King Kong -- almost as much hair, but much less muscle mass. Therefore, we decided to play on Hanakapi'ai Beach and hike back to our car. (Want more movie trivia? King Kong is one of 59 movies the IMDB lists as being filmed in Hawaii. Somehow no one here asked us to pose).
The shoreline has many caves like this one that we were able to walk into. Eventually the crashing surf will enlarge this until the rock overhead falls into the sea--creating an even steeper cliff.
The beech was sandy and brown as are most of the few beaches in this part of the island. Apparently Kauai is so old that the black sand beaches are not found here.
All-in-all, a spectacularly beautiful hike.
