[Wainiha, Kauai, Hi, Feb 20, 2024]

Kalalau Trail is the only way to get up close and personal with the Na’Pali Coast. There are two ways to experience the 11-mile trail. Day-use visitors can do the first 2 miles of the trail by getting a reservation to enter the trailhead at Haena State Park. There is an option to do a side trail to the Hanakapia’i Waterfall, adding another 2 miles one way. Those adventurous enough to do the whole thing must have a camping permit whether or not they plan to camp (although it’s recommended). Those permits are really hard to get as only 60 people are allowed on the full 11-mile trail per day.

Parking at Haena State Park is limited and those reservations are also hard to get. I realized we need reservations just a few weeks before the trip, so the only option I had was the shuttle from Waipa. It runs every 20 minutes and early-ish morning slots were still available, thankfully.

The shuttle was on time and only took about 10-15 minutes to Haena State Park. We enjoyed the lush greenery on our walk to the trailhead. Haena Beach looked inviting, but we had to continue on to the trail.

Because you begin the hike with everyone else on the shuttle, it’s a little hard crowded in the beginning, but we hung back so we can enjoy the trail with as much solitude as we could. It began climbing right away, and soon we were overlooking the beach we had just passed.

We reached the first scenic overlook after just a half mile. The views were amazing!

There were a few other scenic spots along the way. At the very least, we were able to glimpse the mountains among the trees almost the whole time.

We finally descended to Hanakapi’ai Beach. The stream crossing to get to the beach was a bit challenging for me. I changed into my water shoes and eventually found a mellow spot to cross downstream a little.

The beach is pretty much under water in winter, so we had to stay on the rocks. We had a nice snack break here and enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

It was hard to believe that there were 9 more miles after this. I can’t imagine how scenic it gets, although it also gets a lot more challenging than what we just experienced. The nicely maintained trail gives way to a much narrower path with exposed edges and erosion. Alas, we had to go back the way we came. Haena Beach was now in the sun and we could make out the reef just off shore!

Once we got back to our car, we drove to Hanalei and had a yummy lunch at Kalypso Bar & Grill, which we picked just by driving by. I couldn’t help but notice that there was an ice cream place across the street, and if course I had to check it out. Definitely put Pink’s Ice cream on your list if you’re on Kauai’s North Shore.

It was a little bit slow going to get back to Lihue with the road construction going on and some of the bridges being one-way. But we eventually made it back, and had another chill night. We grabbed dinner at the marketplace next to our condo again, and marveled at the sunset. We had just 1 more full day left!