After last year’s visit to Kaua`i I learned that one of the state parks required reservations 2 weeks in advance. They only have 100 parking spaces at the park where the Kalalau trail starts. The link below is the offical site to book reservations.
Below is the link to Hāʻena State Park’s official website. It’s a state park, so no drones… but they allow noisy helicopters over the park.
I made reservations for the entire day because I was unsure of what the weather may be, or if I wanted to go to Hanalei for lunch and come back.
It took roughly an hour to drive to the Hāʻena State Park. Kaua`i is a small island, it looks so much further away on the map.
The hike to the Hanakapi’ai beach is 2 miles long, crosses one stream, and ascends nearly 600 feet above sea level only to come back to sea level. The parking lot is near Ke’e beach. It was a bit rough due to the winter season waves, so it wasn’t possible to swim\snorkel at the beach.
Along the 2 mile hike there are a number of great viewpoints of the mountain inland and the cliffs along the sea.
There were a couple of surfers at the Hanakapi’ai beach and the waves were pretty serious.
After having a picnic lunch (thanks to stopping at Wal-Mart last night for supplies) on the beach I hiked a little further up the valley to a section of bamboo trees. It wasn’t too far or strenuous, but I wouldn’t recommend it. The small patch of bamboo trees was not worthy of a photograph.
I hiked the 2 miles back to Ke’e beach and took a few more photos along the way. It started to rain when I was 1/2 a mile from Ke’e beach, which made the trail a bit more slippery, but was nice to help me cool down.
After drinking another bottle of water in the Jeep I drove to the Haena beach, which I think is outside the State Park (they didn’t check my reservation until arriving at Ke’e beach) to fly my drone. I only went up 400 feet, but the cliff was much more than 400 feet high. I flew further out above the ocean to get some better angles.
I stopped briefly at the Wai’oli Hui’ia Church to take a couple of pictures of it. The church apparently started as a mission and was the catalyst for schools in Hawai’i.
It was about time to eat something (and I finally arrived in a town with actual restaurants). After a brief research I settled on a place called Tahiti Nui.
I tried the Zesty Coconut Crusted Catch and the Ahi Poke Nachos. The Ahi Poke was super ono (good). The tuna literally melted in my mouth it was so tender. For the life of me I can’t understand why I haven’t found this in the mainland. There are plenty of places to get Poke, but not with wonton chips which complement the Ahi so well.
After dinner I went to Hanalei Pier to fly my drone. I got a couple of photos and videos in the area.
After flying I took a lot of photos with my phone with the sunset. It wasn’t the best angle for the mountains because the sun was setting behind them.
