Kauai

I recently made a vacation trip to Kauai. I had visited this island once, more than 10 years ago and I was pleased to be able to make a return visit. As usual, I brought my camera. For this trip, I made a conscious effort to explore as much of the island as I could. This was no fun for the first part of my stay because it rained. A lot.

I made the drive along the rim of the Waimea Canyon to the Nā Pali Coast lookout. I made this trip long ago under better weather conditions. Here are a few shots. I wasn't able to get there at golden hour, so the shots are bland, but it's a cool place, so here they are.

This canyon, and the views of the Pacific beyond the upper end of the canyon, are world famous and my dash through it in an afternoon don't do it justice.

On another day, I visited Polihale State Park. Wow that was hard. First I had to drive well beyond Waimea to a part of the island that is nearly uninhabited. There's a naval base and a bunch of farms. At the end of the asphalt, I turned onto a dirt road that has the highest density of holes per mile that I've ever seen. It was five miles of bouncing through holes because it's impossible to avoid them all because they are too numerous. There's no stretch of that road that lacks holes. I think the last time a grader visited that road was when the road was built. Even in an SUV it was an ordeal that took an hour to get in and another hour to get out. And it was worth it. This was easily the best beach on the island and because it's so remote and hard to get to, there were very few people. Here's the view toward the Nā Pali Coast. The Air Force radomes are just visible on the cliffs.

Cliffs at Polihale State Park

 This beach also provides a good view of Lehua and Ni'ihau.

Lehua

Ni'ihau

Of course Hawaii always provides bird sighting opportunities. There were nenes everywhere. I mean nearly every golf course and fresh water lake or river has them. They seem nearly as numerous as the chickens.

Kauai Elepaio

One of the many Nenes at the hotel

Black Crowned Night Heron

Gallinule

One of the ubiquitous Cattle Egrets

White Rumped Shama

Red Footed Booby

White Tailed Tropicbird

Laysan Albatross

OK, not a bird, but there was a helicopter crash during my stay and this aircraft flew by, presumably on a search mission, while I was photographing birds at Kilauea Light.

SH-60 Seahawk

Great Frigatebird

Years ago, I hiked the Nā Pali Coast/Kalalau trail with my daughter as far as Honakapi'ai Stream. My son and I hiked it this time, going to the Honakapi'ai waterfall. We had better weather this trip.

Nā Pali Coast in February 2005

Nā Pali Coast in December 2019

As far as I'm concerned, any trip to Hawaii is a good trip. Even if there's rain. Even if the chickens are especially loud. Even if the trail is filthy muddy.