Hi everyone,

I worked several hours getting these photos ready the other night, only to discover I'd put the wrong size online - so I had to redo them all. But I had a good bit of time this afternoon to get everything we'd done on Kaua`i online (except for today). Tomorrow (or today for most of you guys) we're jumping to the Big Island of Hawai`i.

To date, and this is a definite minimum, we've hiked 30.25 miles and climbed over 7,000 feet in total elevation amongst a great variety of trails. This has been one of our best trips yet, and despite the haze and vog we've been able to get great views and photographs most every day. The trade winds returned last night and wow are they strong - gusting up to 30 mph or more at times. We hiked back up a part of the Kalalau trail today and when you came around the bend in the pali (cliff) the winds about nocked you over. You go from a light breeze to winds probably in the 40-50 mph range (at that height) in just a few steps. It definitely was catching many of the hikers off guard and nocked a few of them off balance. But the winds cleared it up today big time.

We've squeezed a lot into each day by getting up between 4:15-5:00 a.m. and going to bed around 8-9 p.m. That's 10 a.m. and 2 a.m. (next day) back home respectfully.

Here's the photos we've taken:

Day 1 - Hiking in Koke`e State Park along Nualolo trail to Lolo Vista Point, then along the Nualolo Cliff Trail to where it joins Awa`awapuhi trail. Then back out (that was a 'huffer'). Total distance was over 11 miles this day (which we paid for with our bodies the next two days). But the sights were absolutely phenomenal.
http://www.hawaii-guide.com/index.php/kauai_gallery/gallery_2008/C87/

Day 2 - Nounou Mountain (East) Trail to the top of Sleeping Giant. The 360 degree views were some of the best we've seen in Hawai`i. Then we drove/hiked into Wai`ale`ale - wettest spot on earth. It was misting much of this trek, but I always enjoy a visit to this very very secluded place many call the 'Blue Hole.' It gives you what the local calls "chicken skin." Concluded with a visit to the Limahuli National Tropical Botanical Garden that afternoon. About 7 miles of hiking this day.
http://www.hawaii-guide.com/index.php/kauai_gallery/gallery_2008/C91/

Day 3 - Drove to the top of Koke`e State Park to the Kalalau lookout and spent several hours waiting for the ideal photo conditions. Found a few goats exploring the surrounding pali (cliffs). Afterwards we hiked along the Waimea Canyon Cliff Trail onto a peninsula in the middle of Waimea Canyon. Incredible views despite the haze/rain in the distance. Concluded with a visit to another of the three National Tropical Botanical Gardens on the island; McBryde NTBG in South Kaua`i near Po`ipu. Also stopped by Spouting Horn.
http://www.hawaii-guide.com/index.php/kauai_gallery/gallery_2008/C92/

Day 4 - Our earliest day of the trip (4:15 am), we started on the Kalalau Trail and first hiked two miles to Hanakapi`ai Valley. Originally we thought we'd turn around here since we'd busted our butts on previous days. But we continued another two and a half miles to the beautiful Waiahuakua Valley (which we'd never seen before). I'd hoped to make it to Hanakoa Valley (another 1.5 miles away), but we knew better and turned back. On the way back to the Kauai Banyan Inn we stopped by the Hanalei Valley Overlook (the taro fields below) and Kilauea Lighthouse, which is also home to a Wildlife Sanctuary for birds. We also made a quick stop by the double falls - Wailua Falls. We also treated ourselves to a shave ice and Kona coffee milkshake this afternoon. Figured our bodies deserved it for keeping up with us, LOL.
http://www.hawaii-guide.com/index.php/kauai_gallery/gallery_2008/C90/

Day 5 -This was a mixed bag of activities. We got up a lot later (OK, it was still 6am) and visited a few local shops and a nursery. We revisited Kilauea Lighthouse (and the birds), the Hanalei lookout (now that the haze has been blown away with the trades), and then re-hiked the first half mile of Kalalau trail to the first scenic lookout (hey, what’s another 650 feet in elevation right?). Wish it'd been that clear the day before – it was beautiful today. Afterwards we stopped by Ke`e Beach, Hanalei Bay, and Ha`ena Beach Park. Finished up a bit more local shopping and then came back to pack for our island-jump tomorrow. Sad to leave the Garden Isle, but the Big Island is our other favorite.

I'll send the photos for the last Kaua`i day as soon as I can get them online.

Hope you like.

-John/Tasha

what a beautiful place!

Wow! what beautiful postcard photography! Makes me want to go back
Thanks for sharing these John and Natasha.
Stay safe

I see I'm not the only one who likes the Nualolo Cliff Trail Forest on day one, I've always loved these 'canopy type covered trails' even though they were only pines over here. Great pics John and Nat, I might 'steal' one for a desktop. Hehe, from the looks of it, you'll have to rest up when ya'll get back.

The pics of days 2, 3 and 4 look really great Day 1's pics seem to show a lot of erosion. Is that a problem in the day 1 area John?

Thanks guys. We jumped over to the Big Island today. The volcanic vog (similar to smog) is really bad on one half of the island. Kilauea's summit is puffing out several tons of sulfur-dioxide gas daily right now. We saw a bit of it in the haze on Kauai, 250 miles away even. It's really bad here in spots, but luckily this island is 8+ times the size of Kauai.

Graham, erosion isn't a major issue on the Na Pali coast, but what you're seeing is the work of about 5.1 millions years of water, wind, and landslides. You're right though, when it actually does rain on the cliffs, they erode very easily. For the most part the cliffs are dry, it's the valleys tha are very very wet, where the air comes in warm and moist, rises up, cools and then falls as rain or mist. We watched several very large clouds form in one of those valley's, rather surreal to watch clouds form so large like that. Na Pali is probably one of the most beautiful coastlines I've ever seen in the country. It's hard to surpass the fluted spires rising 2000-4000+ feet above the waves and verdant green valley's below.

Leaving Kauai is always hard for me, it's my favorite. But giving we're staying the first three nights on the BI literally in a rain forest, that helps the transition. We're about a half mile from the summit of Kilauea. All the fumes are luckily blowing away from us thanks to the return of the trade winds yesterday. So long as those are blowing, we're fine on most of the island.

Hi John,

you are lucky, I didn't know that there is a beautiful place around the world like Hawaii until I joined this forum and until I started to see your pictures

if I want to go there I will let you know so you can advise me with great plans
your other company is a tourism company right?

Come to think of it those islands are still relatively young geographically and there must be a huge amount of shaping going on by all the forces of nature. There must be new bits of land on a fairly regular basis from the lava flows of some the volcanoes. It must be fascinating to see the changes visit to visit

That's the really fascinating part. As the islands move away from the hot spot, they actually are slowly sinking back into the sea. Kaua`i was, 5.1 million years ago, located where the Big Island is today. It's slowly drifted on the plate to the north and west, at about the rate our finger nails grow. It's been "dead" volcanically for millions of years now. In another 20 million, it'll probably be ready to sink beneath the aluetian islands of Alaska, that's if it hasn't already plunged into the sea. Hawai`i has a total of 140+ islands, but many are so small to the north and west you never hear about them. Currently only the Big Island has an erupting duo of volcanoes. One, Kilauea, has been erupting since 1984 continuously. It's about a million years old, give or take. Mauna Loa, it's big brother and the worlds largest volcano, is also active but hasn't erupted in over 20 years. When it does, it'll make world news - trust me. It alone makes up around 60% of this island. It's so large, you can hardly even see it when you're here. From sea floor to summit, it's also the worlds tallest mountain at over 56,000 feet tall. Kilauea adds quite a bit of land to the Big Island each year, but most of it will be unusable for centuries. Even the lava from the 1800's that now has housing will eventually be covered again by later flows. Kalapana was the latest victim town in 1992 when Pu'u O'o (a vent in Kilauea) opened up and swallowed the city and the beautiful black sand beach at the shore. Such is life on the slopes of an active volcano. At least the eruptions aren't explosive. They are usually very calm (relatively speaking) and you know the lava flows are coming far in advance. In any event, those are the only two active, of 5 volcanoes, on the Big Island. Mauna Kea, the other big one, likely will erupt again at some point as it subsides into the ocean crust (the heat pushes what's left of the magma/gas up in due time). Haleakala on Maui is likely to do the same, but the eruptions are not caused by the same hot spot any longer, it only affects Mauna Loa, Kilauea, and the newest island in the making, Lo`ihi (which will be 'born' in about 50,000 years or so.)

I especially love Kaua`i because it's so green. I love the Big Island because it's so diverse. 11 of the worlds 13 climates exist here, and every type of topography/landscape you can imagine. Deserts, rainforest, grassland, temperate forest, snowy mountains, scrubland, subtropics, and misty towns (that make me think of Scotland). It's all here on the BI. And I have all the clothes with me to prove it, LOL. Long pants, short pants, jackets, ear muffs, bathing suits, t-shirts, sandals, boots, and flip flops.