Kauai love | Napali Coast by land and sea

   The first thing I want to share with you is the Napali Coast.  We stayed up on the north shore so we were very close to this hike.  We went for the hike the very first full day we were there and were still on west coast time and were up early.  Good thing, because this hike gets busy and hot later in the day, but also because of parking!  We started the hike at about 6:35 am and were back by 12:40 pm, which I've heard is pretty fast.

  We weren't all that prepared mentally for the terrain, but physically we were capable.  It is about 2 miles to the beach and then another 2 miles to the waterfall.  There were all sorts of numbers thrown at us, but I think that those are close approximations.  However, let me be the one to let you know that this is a rugged, physically demanding and challenging hike, since no one warned us.  It wasn't the elevation, elevation gain, or heat (although that was definitely a factor), it was the path itself.  Rocky, root-filled, rock faces to climb, and large streams to cross, are just some of the things.  As we were hiking along and we would encounter another obstacle, it became a joke, "Didn't know we were going to go rock climbing on the hike too, did you?  Oh, didn't know we were going to go base jumping on this hike, did you?"  Haha.  Before we left for the trip, our recommendations came as, "yeah, you guys are in good shape and you can just hike to the waterfall," so that's what we always had in our mind to do.  I am SO glad we did it, but I don't think I need to hike to the waterfall anytime soon.  The hike to the beach though, I would definitely do that again.  Amazing views at every turn and so much foliage to enjoy along the way.  So beautiful!

  The second half of my post is from our boat tour along the Napali coast.  Also beautiful and fun to see from a different view.  We toured with Holo Holo and left from Hanalei Bay and they were awesome!  We listened to everyone when they said to take motion sickness pills beforehand, but man they made us sleepy the rest of the day.  However, there was no motion sickness and I would much prefer that!

Enjoy some of our pics!  PICTURE HEAVY POST!!

  Right out of the gate, rocky path!  It was pretty fun to do on the way there, and I kept thinking about how much the kids would love to climb up these rocks.  But on the way back, all we could think about was flaaaaat, smoooooooth ground!!  Please.  On the way there, we stopped to take a lot of pics.  On the way back we stopped to take just a few as the coastline colors brightened up a bit since the morning, but otherwise we were ready to be done!

The first lookout we found, enjoying that early morning light!

 6:45 am and look at Mike's shirt already!  We definitely did not take enough water, but we survived!

This is why they call Kauai the Garden Isle.  Dense, lush, tropical foliage.

That deep blue!

Wild orchids all along the way.

 Morning beach view at about 8:10 am.  There were only a couple of people here this early.

 Water fall hike trail.  This is where you no longer go along the coast, but follow a stream inland toward the waterfall.  This is where I got eaten alive by mosquitoes in the swampy parts, and failed to bring the bug spray on the hike!

First glimpse of the waterfall! 9:03 am

We made it!  9:31 am

  Took a quick swim, it was chilly and it wasn't particularly warm by the waterfall, ate lunch, took some advil (before our poor knees and feet could start to really hurt us!) and left to go back by 10 am.

  We got back to the beach by 11:20 am and it was packed with people!  We stopped for about 5 minutes and headed back along the coastline trail.

  The water was a deeper and more brilliant blue as we hiked back.  There was no more cloud cover and the sun really brought out the color.  SO beautiful!

  This picture is the perfect one to describe how lush this hike, this island is.  Tropical vines growing up palm trees, ferns, and other tropical foliage covering every square inch of ground.  Do you see how little Mike is in this pic?!?!  I am SO glad I captured this!

 The day after the hike we took the boat tour along the Napali Coast.  This is from our dingy in Hanalei Bay.

   As the captain was warning us about safety procedures, etc. we spotted a pod of Hawaiian spinner dolphins in the bay.  When they jump out of the water they spin up to 7 times in the air.  This was their dormant time so they were less playful, but we still got to see a lot of activity!!  SO cool!

   We saw our resort from the boat.  The little chain of buildings about 2/3 to the right in the pic.

   At the bottom of this valley was the beach that we hiked to the day before!  So much faster to get there by boat, but you would miss all of that lush detail!

  The captain told us the haziness is from the salt in the air.  Made for some beautiful effects!

   We went into this cave underneath the waterfall.

   It was like a ride and very fun, but scary at the same time.  The waves would come in and raise us 15 feet and then we'd splash down on the other side!

One of these valley pictures is where they shot Jurassic Park, but I can't remember which one it was!!

Do you see those little head peeking?  Two honu friends!

     And another pod of dolphins to watch as we sat and ate lunch.  Right off Polihale beach, the most westward beach of the island.

   They swam up so close to us too!

   On our way back we stopped to snorkel and were right by our favorite beach I introduced you to yesterday.  If you look closely you can see the yellow and blue canoe!

  The snorkeling beach is Tunnels and it is right next to Haena.  We snorkeled on the outer edge of the reef and saw a lot of fish.

  We were the last two to swim into the boat, we weren't out long, but we were enjoying it so much.  After we swam in, the captain asked if we lived here.  After saying no, he said I look like I could.  If you know me, that made my whole trip!!  Obviously my skin color, but Mike and I thought that maybe he saw how good of swimmers we were and how comfortable we were in the water and thought we must be local.  Whatever the reason, I was feeling right at home!!  Haha! The only thing that could have made the boat trip better is if we saw humpback whales on the tour.  We were a couple of weeks to a month too late.  Our captain said that you could see upwards of 30 whales along the tour during the season.

  The Napali Coast is so beautiful!!  These two things right after the other were quite exhausting, but we didn't have a lot of time to do it any other way.  Experiences that we will remember for a lifetime!

Happy Monday!