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.

Aloha!

Aloha from the island of Kauai! This is our first time visiting Hawaii and we're excited that our plans include three of the major islands.  We'll be visiting the Big Island next (also called Hawaii) as well as Oahu, home to Honolulu and Pearl Harbor. This is an early anniversary trip to celebrate our 31st.  Our actual wedding anniversary is in August, but because we travel according to when school is out, this is the time we could make the trip work.  Mona will be back at work on our actual anniversary.

Hawaii is state 43 in our life quest to visit all 50 states.  For those of you keeping score at home, we still have Idaho, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Rhode Island.  I knew you'd ask.

We decided to break up the trip and flew to Phoenix and stayed overnight in an airport hotel.  Not sure if that will help with jet lag or not, but we can hope.  Looking forward to hiking, snorkeling, and enjoying a break from the daily grind.

Perito Moreno Glacier

We left El Chalten yesterday morning and drove through scattered rain showers to El Calafate for our final two nights.  Calafate actually has size to it, and we explored the town and wandered through the shops.  Our main reason for coming to Calafate has been to visit the Perito Moreno Glacier. Perito Moreno is also a part of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, but it is much larger than Grey Glacier that we saw in Torres del Paine.

Perito Moreno is located in the southern part of Glaciares National Park.  El Chalten, where we were yesterday, is at the northern end of the park. From Calafate, we had a beautiful drive west for a little more than an hour.  We passed through large swaths of rolling hills and ranches, with the deep blue hues of Lago Argentina visible for about half the drive.

One of the unique things about Perito Moreno, and arguably for the good of the world, is that it is not retreating.  It actually moves on average about two meters per day.  The park has constructed a series of stairs, walkways, and viewing platforms totaling almost two miles that allowed us excellent views of the face of the glacier. We experienced several calves, where a small piece of the glacier collapsed into the water.  This was such a cool experience!  We frequently heard the creaking and cracking sounds of the glacier, then the rumble of the ice as it tumbled down before a big splash.  We never knew when or if this would happen, and we were lucky enough to see five and capture a couple of them on video.  This blog site doesn't handle video well, so photos will have to do.

Today was another gorgeous weather day, and seeing the glacier was icing on the cake. Unfortunately, it's our last day of sightseeing.  We leave tomorrow to drive back to Chile to start our journey home. This trip has been incredible and an awesome way to bring 2024 to a close and welcome 2025. Happy New Year!

 

Final El Chalten Hike

For our final hike in El Chalten, we did the Chorrillo del Salto trail which translates to " Little Waterfall".  It's a short easy hike from the parking lot or you could hike from town about two miles.  We ate our picnic lunch next to the rushing water, enjoying the cool breeze and the squeals of children playing among the rocks.  It's our last day here, and we leave for our final destination, El Calafate, in the morning.   Time has passed by way too quickly! We are thankful for the time here and for the gorgeous weather.  It could not have been more perfect.

Lago del Desierto

Lago del Desierto

Today we ventured outside of El Chalten, driving about 22 miles along a gravel road until it ended at Lago del Desierto (Lago = Lake).  The road was actually the continuation of the main road into the town, but the pavement ends at the parking area for the Fitzroy trail.  The road generally follows the Rio de las Vueltas until we reached the lake.  We started out with Fitzroy in front of us, but with all the twists and turns, we ended up past Fitzroy until we were looking at the back of it.  It was cool to see it from so many different angles.

Lago Huemul in front of Glacier Huemul

Once we reached the lake, we decided to hike the Glacier Huemul trail,  It's  relatively short (less than 2 miles) and generally uphill from the trailhead,   The trail ends at Lago Huemul, a small lake in front of the glacier that feeds a large stream.  The stream runs the length of the trail with several beautiful cascades back into the Rio de las Vueltas.  Just like many of the lakes and streams in Patagonia, this one was a striking shade of blue.

1/2 marghereta 1/2 pepperoni

We drove back to town and ate at the local pizzeria recommended by our host. Argentina has excellent pizza, having been influenced by an influx of Italian immigrants in the 19th and early 20th centuries.  We discovered this in Buenos Aires during our Antarctica trip.  The restaurant is a small shop that serves a set number of pizzas each evening, and then they close.  We tried going last night, but they were too crowded with a line out the door.  Today we arrived a few minutes before they opened which worked out great.  A delicious end to another great day.

Patagonian Wildlife

We love seeing wildlife, especially ones we don't have at home.  Here are some of the animals we've been able to capture with photos:

Rhea

Carpentiera Negra

Guanaco

Upland Geese

Crested Caracara

Hiking Capital of Argentina

El Chalten has earned the moniker "Hiking Capital of Argentina" and it's easy to see why. The mountains here are gorgeous, and there are a number of trails of varying difficulties.  We see a constant stream of hikers with their packs and trekking poles walking through town and at the restaurants after having finished a hike.  I think this may be the most hikers I've seen concentrated in a single place.

Rio de las Vueltas

Our original plan was to hike to Laguna de los Tres (The Three Lakes) and see the base of Fitzroy.  It's a long hike with a very steep finish, much like the hike we did to the Towers in Torres del Paine.  However, given the phenomenal views of Fitzroy that we've already encountered, we decided to give our legs a break and do a shorter hike to Laguna Capri that still gave us fantastic views.  This was a beautiful hike through wooded areas with great views of the aptly named valley Rio de las Vueltas (River of Turns).

Laguna Capri did not disappoint.  We still had our clear blue skies that provided a beautiful backdrop to Fitzroy. We later learned from our AirBnB host that the gorgeous weather we're having is a bit of an anomaly.  We're very thankful for that and hope it continues the rest of our stay.