This was a beautiful sunrise we caught from the condo.
This day, we decided it was time to go check out the North Shore of the island. Our plan was to drive to the end of the road, park the car, and hike to this really cool beach followed by a waterfall. The trail was a little tricky because it was drizzling making the hike a slippery, muddy mess, but we persevered.
Steven at the entry sign for the trail. Gotta love the rooster photo bombing the picture. They say there are two state birds in Kauai, chickens and helicopters!
Here is our trail mileage sign. We hiked to the Hanakapi'ai Falls. To hike the 11 miles (one way) you have to get a tent, food, and a permit. This was not on our radar for this trip!
I thought this trail made of rocks was pretty neat (that is until, we would hit wet/slippery spots).
This picture is looking back at Ke'e beach, where our car was parked.
The views just kept getting better. This is looking west down the Napali coast.
I liked all the cool roots on the trees (when they weren't trying to trip us) and get a load of that handsome man in the picture. Woo-hoooo!
This was our first look at the beach we were hiking to,
Hanakapi'ai Beach. So beautiful!
Steven is standing at the edge of the river we will be crossing over and over as we head up to the Hanakapi'ai Waterfall. I think he was actually tryin to clean some of the mud off of his boots so he could get better traction for the next two miles up.
LOVED these cool roots on the palm trees.
Here is another great picture of them. In a way they looked so fragile, but at the same time strong & magestic. Just LOVED them!
We hiked along side several bamboo forests. This is a small & short one compared to the gigantic ones that grew a little further up on the trail. So amazing (sad to see people had grafettied on them with their names).
First sighting of the waterfall in the distance.
It was soooo tall. You can see two little dots to the right of Steven's hat and that was people standing there at the base.
View of the top of the falls.
Steven was the first to brave the COLD water. Knew I would regret it if I didn't swim under the falls, so......
After a little tugging.....
We both braved the cold. Burr! It was so cool to swim behind the falls and then go right underneath them. Amazing experience!
There were a couple of stray cats up there (not sure how they found their way up there) that looked SUPER hungry. I put my mostly empty tuna packet down and this cat was indeed very hungry. Then Steven put his down so we could get a picture of it. The cat was so determined to get every last drop of tuna that the packet would get stuck on his head. It wasn't sure what to do with a packet stuck to it's head (very briefly). Talk about something being good to the last drop. So silly!
We explored the beach a little bit on the way down. The water was so rough (with signs posted everywhere) that we couldn't get in the water. It was still fascinating to watch the power of the waves and look at all of these kerns that people had made.
Here is ours that we built.
Thought it was kind of cool how the tree framed the kerns. Such a neat place to be!
Taken on our way back down to the jeep. Amazing colors of the ocean.
This tree was so big. Love how you can see the ocean behind my good lookin' husband.
Once we got back to the start of the trail, there were these guys selling coconuts for $5. We thought we would try one for the experience. Not our favorite thing to drink. Didn't taste like much and what you could taste was a little disappointing. Still glad we at least tried one out. Should have had them cut it open so we could snack on the insides.
This was a "wet"cave near our parking lot. Close up, the water was not very pretty, but this picture was kind for cool.
Looking down Ke'e beach. We snorkeled here and saw some pretty cool reef fish. They are so colorful. We also saw a rainbow about an hour later.
Beautiful pine tree coastline as we head to Queen's Bath in Princeville, HI.
Hiked along a creek to get down to the water. Pretty waterfall on the way down.
Sunset at Queen's Bath area. Wow!
Steven hiking over by the stream we hiked down with. Everything on the island is so wet and green.
This is an actual picture of Queen's Bath. The waters were too rough to get in, but...
Steven was tempted (until a huge wave came in and got him a runnin' back up my direction). The video is pretty fun to watch.
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