Waimea Canyon and Na Pali Coast

Half way into our stay at Kauai, we decided to explore the west side of the island (Waimea Canyon) and the inaccessible north-west side (Na Pali Coast).
Taking highway 50 and then 550 into the National Park, we drove about 1.5 hours from the east side to catch the first glimpses of the Canyon. The Canyon itself was created by an earthquake that almost split the island into two. The Waimea river still flows through the Canyon, eroding the basaltic rocks at a fast pace and depositing the red mud into the ocean.


















Erosion of the rocks is quite evident in this picture taken on our drive along Waimea Canyon Drive.



















This is the main view of the Canyon from the Waimea Canyon lookout. Look at the left side of the picture, you can spot the Wiamea River flowing. It has its origins in Mt. Waialeale, the wettest spot on Earth with an annual rainfall of about 450 inches.



















At the end of the drive, we came upon this amazing lookout (Kalalau lookout) to catch the first glimpse of the Na Pali cliffs. The quiet surroundings, the neon blue waters and the majestic cliffs....We breathed in the place and craved for more. We continued on foot on the Pihea Trail.



















A 1.5 mile hike took us to this other astounding view of the cliffs and the water. The clouds were right there...


Our snorkelling guide had insisted that our Kauai experience would be incomplete without the hike along the Kalalau trail from Kee' Beach. And after our first views of the Na Pali Coast from the Waimea Canyon, we definitely wanted to see more. So on the Tuesday, the day we were flying out, we decided to hike some more to view the cliffs.

We hiked almost 2 miles into the wilderness, it is a steep hike into the very rocky and rain-foresty terrain and we had to negotiate our way around rocks and small streams or waterfalls.


















View of the Na Pali Coast about 1 mile into the hike....



















View of the Kee' Beach from where we had started. As you can see, it is a very steep hike and quickly takes you to heights that provide wonderful vistas.


We came back tired, yet satisfied that we had ultimately done justice to our trip to Kauai.

Comments

Mridula said…
Wonderful pictures. Pooja, can you please tell me how do you send muliple photos to the same post? I too would like to do it.
Pooja Aggarwal said…
Thanks Mridula.

I actually create my posts in the blogger composer itself.
Goto www.blogspot.com, login, goto your blog and create your post. When creating make sure you are in Compose mode and not in Edit HTML mode. Then use the picture icon on the top to insert one or many pictures. Use Preview to verify.
The composer works for the most part but sometimes adds little or more space between lines. I then re-edit the posts after seeing how they look when I publish.

HTH,
Pooja
Mridula said…
Thanks for the tip Pooja, I managed to doit myself.
saurav said…
OMG !!! they are breathtaking .....
Editor Choice said…
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