Hanakapiai Beach

June overlooking our hike so far

Saturday morning my cousin June flew over from Honolulu to Kauai. She was supposed to meet some family on Sunday, but Saturday she spent the day with me. I had heard some locals talk about a great trail to an isolated beach (what a surprise :) ) at the end of the North Shore road. The trails are basically the only way to access the Napali Coast by foot and then of course some parts of it are accessible by boat too. The surf tends to be pretty rough, so even taking a boat can be a dangerous.

June is pretty adventurous and was excited about the hike. After a slight delay of finding some proper shoes for her, we headed out on our way toward KeKe beach and the trail to Hanakapiai. June rented a convertible for the weekend, so we had a blast driving down to the end of the windy North Shore road. Soon we were out on the trail and it sure proved to be an adventure. The slope was typically pretty steep, with boulders and rocks blocking pathways, and alot of people were returning from the beach so it slowed traffic down quite a bit. I also noticed that all of the return hikers looked famished and this made June and I a little more weary about the hike. After about an hour of hiking, we decided to stop and have our lunch sandwiches that we had packed along. Once we got going again, we became concerned on how much further we needed to go to get to the beach. It was only 2 miles, but it sure seemed to take forever and every passing person that we asked seemed to have a different time estimate till the beach. Finally we arrived at the beach and it was breath taking. So quiet and serene with a beautiful mix of blues from the sky to the ocean and to the river delta. Words can't describe how wonderful it was there and June and I wished we could have stayed longer, but we wanted to make sure that we left with plenty of time to return. It was an awesome hike, but sheesh the longest two miles I have walked.

With the top down, we headed back to the hotel and then cleaned up for dinner. We had a fabulous dinner with a little wine at Cafe Hanalei and afterwards we were definitely ready for bed. A great Saturday and an awesome first glimpse of the "true" Kauaian North Shore.