Na Pali Coast; Plants and Surf, October 1997

Kauai, Hawaii

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[Na Pali Coast; Plants and Surf]
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We reached Hanakapiai beach and its pounding, dangerous surf after hiking about an hour and a half. We relaxed on the sand, forded a creek that flowed down from the mountains onto the beach, and poked around a shallow cave over at the far end. The beach wasn't crowded, but more people had made the same trek than I'd expected.
We decided to push further up the coast to find a waterfall described in one of our trail guides. The vegetation thickened, the trail narrowed and the mud deepened. Although we came prepared with hiking boots, water, and snacks, we had not appreciated the difficulty of negotiating slippery trails and stifling heat that reduced our progress to a crawl. We turned around defeated after half an hour.
With unexpected time on our hands, we hiked leisurely back to Ke'e and stopped frequently to enjoy the beauty of the Coast and appreciate the opportunity to be there. I took the photograph shown above, which quickly became my personal favorite. I loved the change in colors from dark blue to white, interspersed with the twisted greens of native Na Pali flora.
After the hike we washed mud off and rested at Ke'e, and laughed at the wild chickens that circulated among the beachgoers begging for handouts. Yes, wild chickens. There are lots of wild chickens on Kauai.
Slowly, with no particular plan in mind, we drove back towards Lihue. We had time to see the "Wet Cave" and relax at the very nice public beach at Hanalei. Eventually we arrived back at the hotel and discovered the hot tub and some Hawaiian microbrews.

= Na Pali Coast, Hawaii
= Kokee State Park