Tuesday, 2-22-22 – Kapaa

Led off the day with sunrise yoga. I could get used to this! My mission today is to explore the South Shore of the island – mainly to hike the Maha’ulepu Heritage Trail.

This is a fairly easy out-and-back trail that runs about 2 miles each way. It starts at Shipwreck Beach on Keoneloa Bay and goes to Mahaulepu Beach near Kawailoa Bay. It’s a beautiful hike along the coast, and features some stunning cliffs. There are two different routes on the trail – a) hugging the coast along the cliffs, and b) along the treeline further inland. I took the cliffs on the way out and the trees on the way back.

This was a fun hike! Following that I made some stops to check out a couple other beaches that were close by.

On my way back to the hotel I stopped at another restaurant recommended by my shuttle bus driver. This one specializing in Hawaiian food. Unfortunately though, it was closed. According to their website, and the signs onsite, they should have been open when I arrived; maybe a one-off thing? Oh well, maybe I’ll try again if I’m back in the area. So for dinner I ended up grabbing some things at a grocery store that is within walking distance of my hotel.

Wednesday, February 23 – Kapaa

…that’s because I have a reservation at Hā’ena State Park on the North Shore. I booked this about three weeks ago. Reservations are required because the park is home to the popular Kalalau Trail. It is claimed to be “one of the most adventurous hiking trails in the world“, and serves as one of the only ways to access the Napali Coast via land.

There are two forms of day-pass reservations to the park: a) entry with parking, and b) entry via a shuttle bus. The former option is hard to come by, as many parking spots are reserved for Hawaiian residents. So I booked the latter ($35). The first shuttle runs at 6:30am and the last one leaves the park at 5:30pm. The morning shuttles into the park depart every 30 minutes, and the reservations are on a departure time basis. My booking was for 9am. (And you do NOT want to miss the last shuttle out of the park at 5:30pm, because there is no cell service in the park, and it’s a 6 mile walk back to the shuttle park-and-ride lot!) The buses hold 25 people, and the ride into the park takes about 30 minutes.

Checking Google Maps this morning, the drive from my hotel to the park-and-ride was going to take about 40 minutes. I was super stressed though, because the park’s website warned that any late arrivals would need to go standby on a subsequent bus. So I left the hotel around 7:15. And…I arrived at the P&R pretty much right at 8:00. Now, here’s the cool part: The staff at the P&R were very accommodating and held the bus for some folks with 8am reservations that had just pulled up to the lot. And because of that, I had time to ask if a seat was available on that bus, and if so, could I grab it? The answer: Yes and Yes. Awesome! I’ll be arriving at the park an hour ahead of schedule! (You’re probably wondering why I didn’t just make an 8am reservation? Well, the usual answer would be because I’m an idiot; but in this case the 8:00am (and the 8:30am) slot(s) were fully booked when I made my reservation. This one hour advantage will prove to be critical to my hiking plans.

The Kalalau Trail offers two options for hikers with the day-pass (like me)…

The first option is to go from Ke’e Beach in the park to Hanakapi’ai Beach. This 2 mile (4 miles out and back) route is the most popular with hikers.

The second option is to continue a further 2 miles (4 miles out and back) on the trail which culminates at the Hanakapi’ai waterfall. This portion of the trail is not maintained however, and becomes more difficult as it meanders over rocks and fallen trees.

And I should point out that the option one hike is no cakewalk, with severe elevation changes, rock obstructions and a creek crossing. So, my plan was to do the hike to Hanakapi’ai Beach, see how that went, both on time and effort, and then determine if I wanted to continue on to the falls. (with the 5:30pm hard stop in the forefront of my thoughts!)

I was a little worried that the trail would be packed with people, but it became obvious that the reservation system that the park has implemented is working, because the trail was sparsely populated.

So, enough of my yapping, let’s do this!

On our arrival, the park ranger mentioned that it rained here yesterday. The bad news? That means the trail is going to be muddy and slippery. The good news? How lucky have I been with the weather on this trip? I booked this reservation three weeks ago, and missed out on rain by a day! I’m just waiting for the weather karma God to bite me. Hard!

I’m happy with my time so far, so the plan is to continue on the trail to the waterfall, with a status check on my location in 1 1/2 hours.

There is no doubt that I’ve experienced more impressive waterfalls in my travels, but the effort it took to reach Hanakapi’ai makes it special.

After a short break on the beach, I started the hike back to the trailhead in Hā’ena Park. This final leg of the trail required 1 hour and 5 minutes to complete. So, all told, the hike covered 8 miles, with a duration of 6 hours, of which I figure breaks and photo ops accounted for about 45 minutes. This was a good day; I’m pretty happy that I accomplished this. I have to admit though, I’m beat!

Sidenote: I must say that I’m so impressed that I did not see one piece of trash along the trail during my hike.

On the drive back to the hotel, I made a stop at the roadside Hanalei Valley Overlook.