The Kalalau Trail

The Na Pali Coast is a 16-mile stretch of coastline on the northwest side of Kauai defined by huge, fluted sea cliffs (pali). It’s one of Hawaii’s crown jewels and among other things, a prominent filming location for Jurassic Park. The Kalalau Trail provides the only land access to the coast, traversing 11 miles one-way from Haena State Park to Kalalau Beach, and has frequently been called “the best hike in Hawaii.”

Kimberly and I had booked flights to Kauai for the Thanksgiving holiday. I tend to plan the details of vacations pretty last minute and was clueless about all of this, which wouldn’t have worked out since the permits required to hike the Kalalau Trail sell out three months in advance. Luckily for me, though, Kimberly stayed on top of things and snagged permits for us. Thanks Kimberly!

The main hazard of the trail is flash flooding, which can make the streams uncrossable during heavy rain. We kept a close eye on the weather forecast, which started out looking terrible but later improved enough to make the hike a go!

We shouldered our overnight packs and got going at 6:50am. While the trail follows the coast, it’s far from flat since it’s almost always going up or down as it traverses the cliffs. Online sources differ on the total elevation gain, but I recorded 3300’ each way.

The first half of the trail had mostly fleeting views since it spends a lot of time in the jungle. Mosquitoes were plentiful at water sources and I found myself envying Kimberly’s long pants at times.

We reached the halfway camp, Hanakoa, at around mile 6. We’d been considering camping here for our second night to shorten our hike out, but the place looked rather unpleasant with no views and lots of bugs. Two nights on the beach it was!

Views started to open up in the second half. At mile 7 we crossed the infamous “Crawler’s Ledge,” a section of trail improbably chiseled into some cliffs right above the surf. It’s exposed but well built, and simple enough to cross just putting one foot in front of another.

It started raining after Crawler’s Ledge. We had brought rain jackets but didn’t bother to put them on; it was warm enough that we knew we’d simply dry off once the rain stopped.

We eventually rolled into camp, nice and worn out from the hike. Kalalau Beach is the closest thing I’ve seen to paradise on Earth, backed by towering cliffs and a fairytale waterfall that everyone was using as a shower and water source. We managed to snag a prime campsite close to the waterfall and with a view of the beach. Kimberly even found an aloe vera plant which she used to heal her bug bites! It started to rain again right as we were finishing camp chores and the sun was setting, so we retreated into the tent for the night.

We had a lazy second day mostly relaxing around camp. I got up earlier and spent a long time sitting on the beach, just watching and listening to the surf break. Quite meditative!

Later, we hiked a short ways into the Kalalau Valley. There used to be a large hippie squatter community living in the valley before most were kicked out by the authorities, and supposedly you can still find the fruit gardens they left behind. We hadn’t researched this part well, though, and didn’t find anything interesting before being driven away by the bugs.

We were well rested on the third day, and other than Kimberly accidentally soaking her waterproof shoes on the first stream crossing, we had an uneventful hike out.

Definitely a unique and special experience, far removed from my usual mountainous diet in the PNW :)