Napali coast

The Kalalau trail traverses the famous northwestern coast of Kaua’i in what I presume is one of the most scenic hiking trails anywhere in the United States. The first two miles are open to day hikers and a backpacking permit is required to venture further. Because of recent flooding however, the whole trail was closed during our visit to the island last fall.

That unfortunate news left just a few other options to see this dramatic coastline. We availed ourselves of two of these: ridge-top hiking trails accessible from Kokee State Park, and offshore views of the coast from the sea on a chartered boat tour.

The Napali Coast reminds me of Big Sur in central California where in both cases steep coastal mountains abruptly meet the gorgeous Pacific Ocean. The mountains of the Napali coast are more deeply sculpted and luminous than Big Sur, but both are examples of breathtaking coastal wilderness.

Napali coast cliffs from offshore.

Spinner dolphins astride the boat near the Napali coast.

Our first views of this area were by charter boat that left early in the morning from the port on the southern side of the island. A very long sandy beach in southwestern Kauai suddenly gives way to the deeply incised ridges and valleys that rise to several thousand feet above the Pacific. A large pod of spinner dolphins milled around the tour boat, swimming near the bow and leaping out of the water.

We pulled closer to shore at several locations along the Napali coast and anchored at one for a chance to snorkel offshore. The site was in about 10 m of water though I swam in towards shore with my two older kids to a shallower area. Water clarity was decent, though I enjoy swimming in pretty shallow areas when possible because they offer more opportunity to see the small biota on the reef. I was about the last person to hop back on the boat, hoping to spend as much time as possible in the water.

Fishes at our snorkeling spot along the Napali coast.

Our other views of the Napali coast were from above. One must actually circle all around the island from the Kalalau trail, head up the steep road that traverses the west side of Waimea Canyon, and access one of the trails that descends down the mountain ridges from the state parks.

View from the Awaawapuhi trail.

We descended down onto one of the ridges via the Awaawapuhi trail. The coast wasn’t visible at all for the first two miles or so but then the trail ran along a narrow saddle with ravines to the north and south. After another mile and a half it ended, and opened up to a spectacular view of the Pacific from a high point with views to the north and south. A rainbow graced the coastline to the north for a few minutes.

I actually ended up taking a second excursion to the Napali Coast offered by a different tour company. My main interest in this second tour was the destination of Lehua Rock off the north shore of Nihau where the group would be allowed to snorkel. However, before we even departed we were told this might not be possible due to rough seas, and a short time later on the water, that disappointing news was confirmed. We viewed the Napali coast again, but did not even snorkel there, rather stopping at a small cove near the harbor. I now have two excellent excuses to visit Kaua’i again – the Kalalau trail and Lehua Rock!

Small coastal waterfall.

Spinner dolphins.

Rainbow at the end of the Awaawapuhi trail.

Queen Emma's Bath, Kaua'i

(I am still catching up on blog posts from late 2018 and early 2019…the next couple pertain to a trip to Kaua’i in November 2018.)

Fishes in Queen Emma's Bath.

A few years ago, I went with the family to the Big Island, my first visit to Hawaii in many years. Over the course of a week and a half we circumnavigated the island, snorkeling, hiking, and exploring. Three years later during the same fall season, we decided to do a similar trip to the Garden Island, which like the Big Island in 2015, was a new destination for all of us.

One location on the north shore of Kaua’i that piqued my interest before arriving was Queen Emma’s Bath in the Princeville area. This landmark is a large pool set within black basalt at the end of a short trail on a section of coastline exposed to the north Pacific. The first time visited, we were quickly in the thick of a very muddy trail that descends from the parking area to the shore. I was completely unprepared for this sort of hiking, carrying an unwieldy bag and trying to walk on slippery mud in sandals. Once we made it down the slope of red mud and out onto the ledges of basalt, a gorgeous view of the northern shore of the island opened up with the coastlines of Hanalei and Napali in view to the west.

Large swells were crashing on the rocks and made the pool at least a little unsafe for swimming so we just explored the higher rocks along the shore. Water running off the coastal slope created a sort wetland where sedges and other plants grew where sediment collected in the volcanic rock, black tadpoles rested atop the orange silt, and a few light blue damselflies danced about.

Turtles just offshore of Princeville, Kaua'i.

I returned alone to Queen Emma’s two days later better prepared for the trail with sturdier footware and a backpack. However, it had probably had become even worse by this point. Down at the coast the swells had decreased markedly allowing safer access to the intertidal and snorkeling pools.

At the bottom of the trail I first turned east, away from Queen Emma’s Bath, and explored a large shallow pool that I had to myself for the next hour and a half. A ledge of higher basalt protected the pool from the open ocean where waves still hit, but with much less force than a few days before.

Green sea turtles were hanging out offshore of the pool, at times coming right up next to the edge of the basalt ledge. I counted at least five turtles, in a range of sizes. With my phone in hand to photograph them, suddenly a spotted octopus scampered onto the exposed rocks right in front of me! Perhaps its sudden appearance was due to escaping a predator, or it decided to abandon some hiding place because of the turtles swimming nearby. Since my phone was in hand and ready to go, I had the chance to capture a few photographs during the few seconds this normally shy creature was out in the open.

A surprise visit from an octopus!

Near the mouth of the large pool where it connected with the ocean, there were excellent populations of macroalgae. Tufts of bright green Chaetomorpha with individual cells evident to the naked eye were attached to the exposed rocks, and there were carpets of the red alga Pterocladia with its orderly pinnate branching. Other algae thrived submerged in thes shallow pool including the tropical green seaweeds Caulerpa, Halimeda, and Bryposis. I initially mistook one lightly calcified green seaweed, Neomeris, for a benthic invertebrate. There were several species of fish inhabiting the pool, most skittish.

After my more solitary exploration of the first pool, I walked over to Queen Emma’s bath where there was a rather large crowd of people and many were using the pool not for snorkeling, but to jump off the basalt rocks. I snorkeled briefly in the pool anyway, but it didn’t have the best water quality. I then found two smaller undisturbed pools further to the west in which to snorkel. The second of these two smaller pools had lush cover of Sargassum seaweeds and several species of soft corals/ zooanthids. The pools were just large enough for a snorkeler or two and just deep enough to make a bit of a dive under the surface.

One of my small snorkeling pools.

After briefly snorkeling, I explored the exposed intertidal too in this area. It did not disappoint either. There were helmet urchins, Colobocentrotus atratus, pressed to the more wave swept rocks, and underneath a ledge, a small population of tiny red sea grapes, which turned out to be a small species of Botryocladia, one of my favorite genera of red algae!

Botryocladia skotsbergii. 

Blue soft coral Sarcothelia and zoanthid Protopalythoa.

A blenny at the bottom of Queen Emma's Bath.