Kauai sightseeing - hiking the Kalalau Trail

Image from flickr's Jeff Kubina, commercial use Creative Commons license

While there are many easy and moderate hiking trails on Kauai, the Kalalau Trail is not one of them.  If you want to hike the Kalalau Trail, you should be prepared.  For starters, you should know the Sierra Club gives it a “strenuous” difficulty rating; it rates a nine on a scale that tops out at ten, in fact.

To be honest, a high percentage of people justifiably question whether the word “trail” is an exaggeration.  Quibbling aside, it’s important to remember there are spots where straying off the trail or whatever you want to call it will most definitely equate to sudden death.

Now that we’ve established how strenuous and dangerous it is, you should also know it’s equally wondrous.  It’s famous for magnificent scenery that words don’t do justice. Neither do photographs, for that matter.

Highway 560 takes you to the trailhead near Haena, an area known as “the end of the road” because it’s as far as you can drive on the island’s north shore.  Kauai’s west side has a similar “end of the road” at Polihale Beach, and never the twain shall meet.  Therein lies the beauty of Kauai’s Na Pali coast.

The Kalalau trail begins on the inland or “mauka” side of the road (“toward the mountains” in Hawaiian).  On the opposite “makai” (“toward the ocean”) side of the road, you’ll find the spectacular Ke'e Beach, a perfect place to spend time before a hike, after a hike or any other time, really.  (Ke’e Beach is where the love scene in the movie The Thorn Birds was filmed, by the way.)

The Kalalau Trail is an arduous 11-mile trek that traverses five valleys before ending at Kalalau Beach, a one-way trip that’s a full day (typically 10 hours) even for experienced hikers.  The first two miles of the trail, from Ha’ena State Park to Hanakapi’ai Beach, offer a popular day hike which you can extend with another two-mile hike inland to enjoy the Hahakapi’ai Falls.

Day-use hiking permits are required if you continue beyond Hanakapi'ai, even if overnight camping is not planned.  You can find the pertinent Kalalau Trail hike details here, and this site shares some excellent health and safety recommendations.

You’ll note the state parks page ends with a word of caution advising not to leave vehicles overnight at trailhead parking lots.  This is because cars left here are frequently vandalized, and you should also be advised that some car rental companies won’t honor reservations if they learn you have this plan.  A better alternative, perhaps, is to park in a less secluded area and arrange for transportation to and from your car.  A Google search for “Princeville cab” or “Hanalei cab” should provide some Local results for assistance.

Another alternative for enjoying the Kalalau Beach area is to arrive by boat or kayak.  You can do a “Captain Zodiac Kauai” Google search for information about the boating option, but it’s only available from May 15-September 15, and then only when sea conditions permit.  EDIT 8/25/09:  Per the staff at kauaiexplorer.com, "there are individuals that will drop you off at Kalalau but they are operating unofficially and we can't connect you with them. If you kayak in, you gotta kayak out (kayaking Na Pali when the surf is down is great, you can carry a lot)."

Guided and unguided kayak tours are available, but potential kayakers should be warned this adventure is sometimes referred to as “the Mt. Everest of Sea Kayaking.”

If you’d like to see more of the Kalalau trail, you can watch the new thriller movie A Perfect Getaway or check out the homemade-but-excellent video below.  You may also want to enter this contest to win free travel to Hawaii (and maybe this other contest, too) or learn more about another Kauai natural wonder, Waimea Canyon.

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