[Waimea, Kauai, HI, Feb 19, 2024]

After Ash’s experience with the sunset tour yesterday, he understandably didn’t want to get on a boat again for a while. But he had pre-booked a snorkeling tour for that morning while I was going to hike in Waimea Canyon. We stopped by the charter company to inquire about cancelling it right as they opened at 7 am. They did end up giving him a refund, but they did give him a hard time at first because he was cancelling with less than 24 hours notice. They only acquiesced once we returned later in the day and it turned out that the captain had offered people refunds that morning due to the high seas.

This meant that he was going to join me on my excursion into Waimea Canyon. The Grand Canyon of the Pacific, as it’s called, is ten miles (16 km) long and up to 3,000 feet (900 m) deep. The Waimea River carved the canyon as it rose with the extreme rainfall from the island’s central peak, Mount Wai’ale’ale, among the wettest places on Earth. It is almost always shrouded in clouds. The Na’Pali coast wilderness is to the canyon’s west, Koke’e State Park is to its north, and the tiny town of Waimea to its south.

Waimea is where we were hoping to find some breakfast and bathrooms before going into the canyon, but the town was surprisingly dead. It was almost 8 am, so not that early, but there was no breakfast restaurant in sight. The place I had looked up on Google turned out to be a food truck that wasn’t at its usual location. We went to the market hoping it had a bathroom, but were empty handed yet again. Luckily, the Subway in town opened right at 8 am, so Ash bought a sandwich. But even that didn’t have a restroom. The lady at the counter pointed us in the direction of the baseball field by the high school. It was a bit of a rocky start, but at least we had already gotten coffee before Waimea!

From there, it was a 30-minute drive into the state park. Our first stop was Waimea Canyon Overlook. We were so excited to get our first glimpses of this majesty! We could see Waipo’o Falls, which was the end of the hike I had planned for that day!

We got a closer look at the waterfall at another stop on the road. This one was unmarked, so we happened to stop by chance because we saw other vehicles parked on the side.

At the trailhead for the hike, we enjoyed two more lookouts. Canyon Viewpoint lives up to its name, with a gorgeous view the length of the canyon.

Off to the side was Ni’ihau Viewpoint. It’s named so after the island it looks out on. I had not heard of Niihau island before, and it’s no wonder, because it’s private. Elizabeth Sinclair, a Scottish farmer and plantation owner, purchased Niʻihau in 1864 for $10,000 (equivalent to about $190,000 in 2022) from the Kingdom of Hawaii. The island’s private ownership passed on to her descendants, the Robinsons. The island, known as “the Forbidden Isle”, is off-limits to all outsiders except the Robinson family and their relatives, U.S. Navy personnel, government officials, and invited guests. The island is about 6 million years old, a tad older than the 8-million-year-old Kauaʻi to the northeast. Niʻihau is the remnant of the southwestern slope of what was once a much larger volcano.

Once we were done with the overlooks, we started out on the Canyon Trail to Waipo’o Falls. It’s only 1.8 miles to the falls, but it’s quite steep going down.

At the Cliff Point Overlook, we had more fantastic views. Only the incessant noise from all the helicopter tours spoiled the experience.

A wide open space right before we descended into the waterfall also had amazing views.

The Waipo’o waterfall itself can’t be seen on the hike, only the little 25-footer that precedes it. It is still beautiful and made for a great snack stop.

Our final stop was Kalalau Lookout in Koke’e State park, which begins just north of Waimea Canyon. We could see the end of infamous Kalalau trail below us. It is 11 miles one way to get down there from the trailhead at Haena State Park on the north shore of the island. We will be doing the first 2 of those miles tomorrow!

The Kalalau Lookout and the drive into Koke’e State Park definitely made me want to do more hikes in this area because the trails have amazing views of the Na’Pali coast. While writing this post, I may or may not have fallen into an internet black hole looking at Kauai hikes.

We intended to go to the overlook at the very end of Koke’e state park, but the road quickly turned into a dirt road with potholes, so we turned around at Kalalau Lookout.

We made a quick stop at Koke’e Lodge and Museum just to check it out. It would make a good place to picnic or to get lunch from the onsite restaurant, but we wanted more food choices, so we headed back out towards Waimea. We were hoping we’d have better luck foodwise at lunchtime.

We stopped at Coconut Corner in Waimea, a Thai place. They had great grilled shrimp and Thai coffee but I was still hungry… so I went across the street for Mahi Mahi tacos from Island Tacos, which were amazing.

We were done with everything by early afternoon, and we had some well deserved chill time back at our resort. We went for a nice and easy sunset walk to the beach by the resort, then grabbed a super casual but yummy dinner at the marketplace across the street.