Waimea Canyon and the Napali Coast

We're spending our first two nights on Kauai on the south shore in Koloa near Poipu Beach.  Kauai is the oldest of the major islands at some 5 million years old.  Often referred to as the Garden Island, it is the least developed and home to lots of lush mountains and forests.  Probably the most significant reason the island is less developed than others is because of Waimea Canyon -- the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.  The canyon is about 10 miles long and as much as 3,000 feet deep.  It was carved from both Waimea River erosion and the collapse of the ancient volcano that created Kauai.

Waimea Canyon

We drove an hour from our AirBnB to Kokeʻe State Park which took us past Waimea Canyon and is the furthest point we could drive with our car.  We stopped many times along the way to take in the views, so it was probably more like 90 minutes before we got there.  Because we haven't fully adjusted to Hawaiian time yet, we were up super early and out the door before 6:00am which meant we basically had the drive and overlooks to ourselves.

Kokeʻe State Park appears the be the furthest inland you can drive from the south shore. The entire western side of the island is mountainous, where the peaks quickly drop from 3,000 feet down to the ocean.  The only way to access a lot of this area is by hiking. The other option, which we are doing tomorrow, is to take a boat cruise along the western side of the island -- called the Napali Coast -- and access the beach.

Looking over a virtual wall of clouds instead of the Napali Coast

We drove to the end of the road in Kokeʻe State Park to access two lookouts over the Napali Coast.  We then hiked the Pehia Trail along the ridge which typically affords spectacular views.  Unfortunately for us, clouds obscured the entire coast and all we could see was a sea of white.  We did manage a couple of brief breaks in the clouds to get momentary glimpses of the georgous coastline we were missing.  

A brief break in the clouds

Even so, it was still great hiking, and we basically had the trail to ourselves.  We only encountered people on the hike back. Hopefully, we'll have clearer weather for the boat cruise tomorrow.