Waimea Canyon

Tuesday we went to a lu'au at the Kilohana plantation that included a show. Since we had already been to the lu'au at the Polynesian Cultural Center on O'ahu, we were comparing the two. We had great seats for the show and the dinner was really good. Overall, we felt the show at the Polynesian Cultural Center was better but the food between the two were comparable. The fire dances were by far the best part.

Wednesday we got up early and drove to the South Shore to hike Waimea Canyon. Mike had gone through the guide book and found a couple he was interested in and we decided to find out about the trail conditions from the rangers before making a final decision. The one he was most interested in was 11.3 mi--including the 2mi hike back to the car because it wasn't a complete loop. We decided to do just the first and longest part, which was the Nu'alolo trail. As we were told by the ranger, this was the most difficult trail in Waimea because it's 1500ft of elevation you lose at the beginning...and has to be done at the end. Going steeply downhill didn't seem to bad at first, but your legs tire pretty quickly. We had some spectacular views of the canyon, spires and ocean, but the best was the last 0.5mi of the 3.8mi trail. This trail had you walking on the tip top of the mountains to a lookout point. I was petrified, especially because the trail is mostly loose, crumbly rock. But it was worth it. The view was amazing. We could see the Na Pali Coast stretching out before us and the canyon swallowing helicopters one by one. Thank goodness for the gorillapod because we were able to get some shots with the gorillapod wrapped around a bent sign.


The way back was HARD, we were going uphill nearly the entire way, with the steepest part at the very end. We ran out of water and were glad that we hadn't done the extra 4 miles. Something we both noticed was the quiet. We only saw 8 other hikers on this trail, all but one hiking in as we were hiking out. We stopped a few times and just listened and all you could hear were the sounds of the birds, the wind in the trees and the buzzing of bees. Occasionally there would be helicopter noise from an air tour but there was absolutely no road noise. Our feet were pretty torn up by the end of the hike and we were tired, but we still made it to a few lookout points to get a glimpse of the other parts of the canyon.


The first lookout we went to, we noticed that it looked like it was raining, but when we got up to it, there wasn't any rain. Then Mike proclaimed 'we're in a cloud!' Cool, except we couldn't see anything. At all. However, for a brief moment, like Avalon appearing out of the mist we could see some of the canyon and snapped a few shots to prove we were actually there. The other lookouts were far more rewarding. We were also able to get some great shots of the sunset last night, the sky was crimson and beautiful, and being inspired we decided to get up early to see the sunrise. Didn't work out the way we planned. We thought we'd go to Kilauea Lighthouse but it was closed and we could see beautiful sky, but no sun. So we raced to another beach that was 20mins away. We caught the tail end and unfortunately saw a wild pig fall victim to the morning commute. (It was gone when we were coming back so I'm thinking someone was having Kalua--pit roasted--pork for dinner). We tried for the sunset tonight, but rain clouds prevented another stunning night like last night, so we'll have to try again. Tomorrow is the Na Pali Kayak trip...gulp. Only waterproof cameras for that one though, so we'll all be waiting to see how they turn out.