This trail is about 7 miles, and it took us a couple of hours to do. Justin had forgotten his hiking shoes, so he did the entire trail in his socks. What a champ. The trail is located almost at the end of Waimea Canyon road, just before the park. The trail starts off like you are in forest, and goes up through many amazing views. This trail is probably one of the longest ones that I had done so far, and one of the best.
Waineke Rd -- This was the entrance from the YWCA sign.
Bridge with Metal Slab on the dirt road.
4WD Ford Exploring at the entrance
Alaka’i Trail Entrance
Wooden Boardwalk trail..most of the time.
Stairs heading down
Slippery When Wet — This is a swamp after all.
River going through swamp trail
Check these trees out. Like from a ghostly movie
Alaka’i Swamp
In the clouds -- Kilohana Lookout
Now here is the way it would look, but getting this view, with all the rain that happens to the wettest island in the world, is rare.
I literally had my head in the clouds today on Alaka’i trail to Kilohana Lookout. The clouds where literally and figuratively going all around me. There is a sheer cliff overlooking the island’s north shore 4,000 feet below the Pu’u o Kila Lookout. On the trail, you are walking most of the time on a wooden boardwalk, which helps you keep off the mud. The trail itself goes through swamp land. In order to get here, I am fortunate that I have a 4WD vehicle to get to the start of the trail. I made a right into YWCA direct road that is across from the Koke’e Restaurant and Lodge (the only restaurant up there). Check out this video with the clouds coming up:
Several weeks ago I had purchased the book “The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook” , yes, from Costco and now I am going though all the hiking trails. I woke up this morning on a mission. You see, during the winter months on Kauai, the swell of the ocean changes, and all of the surf goes up north shore (sometimes insane 30 foot sets). I didn’t know this moving here. I am not that hard core, and there is very small surf on south shore, which I had purchased a couple of foam boards for (yes, from Costco). I will still surf up north at times, but I really want to hike Kauai. There are alot of places to hike.
Today’s trail is Waipo’o Falls. This trail was said to be moderately strenuous and took about 2 hours for me. There was amazing views of the Waimea Canyon from the other side of most lookouts. There are two waterfalls. I had taken a picture of the first, and then my batteries died on my camera (note to self: either by a new camera, or bring lots extra batteries — the video function on my camera does not upload to Youtube). This is NOT me in the video, but you should see the second falls:
On my way home, I stopped by the Kauai Coffee Company for a couple of Free Samples of coffee, as I needed a boost.
Got home, hung out with my neighbors Billy and Terrie, and it was time for Happy Hour with my other neighbor Jeremy. We decided to go to Port Allen’s Sunset Grill. Happy hour was $ 2.00 domestic beers, and the best pupus is the steak, which is a whole steak smothered with sauteed mushrooms and onions and a “special” dipping sauce. Next is a jam session at my pad.
