Opaekaa Falls, Wailua Falls, and Kalalau Valley

Our third day in Kauai we just spent sight seeing. It was supposed to rain a lot that day (and it did), so we just drove a lot and checked out some beautiful scenery! For example:

Maybe my favorite picture from the whole trip!

The Wailua River that we kayaked the next day.

Kauai has so many locations that have been used in movies. I guess their vegetation is similar to many places around the world, so they use it to look like many destinations. This little village was used in the movie "Outbreak" I believe. It was a beautiful little Hawaiian village!

The Wailua River going out to the ocean:

Look! There are other animals besides chickens in Kauai! I was beginning to wonder. We learned from our kayak guide that for every human there is in Kauai, there are 3 chickens. I guess before a Hurricane a while back they let them all out of their cages thinking they would be safer that way. Problem is that they could never get them all back and they've just been reproducing a overpopulating the island since then. It's also illegal to kill them! Beautiful horses, though, right by the river.

Such beautiful flowers everywhere also. It's such a nice contrast to all of the green.

Wailua Falls on the day it wasn't raining. I guess Wailua means "two waters". It's interesting, though, because you can only see the two waters when it's not raining. The day we went in the rain, it was all one large waterwall. Beautiful, beautiful place! We didn't even have to hike to this one.

I don't know if you can tell that my shirt is covered in rain. It was coming down pretty good! See the difference in the waterfall?

At the end of the Waimea Canyon Road is the Kalalau Lookout that looks out over the Kalalau valley. Now, if you remember from my last post, this is also the hike that goes along to coast but from the other way. They can't connect the two roads going around the island because there is a huge swamp that separates them. Going as far around Kauai as you can from the East side you get to the trail head for the Kalalau Trail. Going around to the west, you get to this lookout. It takes about 4 hours to get from one side to the other (depending on traffic). So, this is the beautiful Kalalau valley. We had to try three times before being able to see it as it was usually covered in clouds! 

One last one of our favorite treat on Kauai. This is the shaved ice at Jo Jo's. This was a small! It had macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom with strawberry colada, banada colada, and pina colada flavors and topped in a coconut cream. It was so good! 

Kalalau Trail along the Na Pali Coast

We were watching the weather when we got there and noticed that it looked like our best days for hiking were the first two. So, first day Waimea Canyon, second day a heck of a hike on the Kalalau Trail. The entire trail is 11 miles one direction. It's intense and not usually a day hike. Usually people get camping permits and camp along the way. That wasn't really in our plans, so we decided to do a shorter portion of it. A lot of people do 2 miles in along the coast and then turn inland and do another two do a waterfall. We started off planning on going that route. However, when we got to the halfway point at the beach we met this crazy local guy. He was telling us that if we kept going on the coast on the trail another mile and a half we'd reach the highest point of the trail and have unobstructed views of the valley and the ocean. He said we could see lots of waterfalls in Kauai but that view you couldn't find anywhere else. We debated for a while and decided to listen to the crazy guy. We should've put together that we were getting to the highest point in a mile and a half, but I'm not quite sure we did. What that translated into was super steep switchbacks. Our legs were burning going up and hurt even worse coming back down. However, it really was a breathtaking sight, and I'm grateful we did it. If our legs weren't already jelly (we hiked 7 miles on this trail), we would've tried to get to the waterfalls also. It would've added 4 more miles, so we'll have to save that for another trip! Let's get on to the most beautiful hike I've ever done!

Before getting to the trail head you go by these wet caves that were super cool!

The trailhead. Isn't this dreamy?

We laughed a little at all the warning signs, but heeded them because of some stories I'd read about this trail. Not even a month before we did this, 121 hikers had to be rescued because the stream we crossed experienced a flash flood and trapped everyone on the other side. Not the safest place in the world! Oh so worth it, though.  

Jared checking out the territory

I find it fascinating how every trail we went on in Kauai was different. This trail started off almost 100% of rocks that you climbed. Fine going up, but a little tricky on the way back when your balance isn't quite up to par with jello legs. Thankfully we made it all unscathed!

1/2 mile marker overlooking Ke'e beach:

I was bummed this one was so dark and bright in the background, because this spot was beautiful!

Isn't the color of this water beautiful?!

The beautiful Na Pali coast.

Then somehow we changed from rocks, to red rocks, then to this! 

Na Pali coast selfie!

My handsome guy...

One of the smaller streams we crossed

The bigger stream that flooded and trapped the hikers. We had been told that it was pretty difficult to go across on the rocks, so you were better off taking off your shoes and just wading through. I went first and decided I'd take my shoes off and just go through. Well, halfway through I stepped on a rock that wasn't secure and slipped to the right, just enough to dunk my shoes in the water anyway. I poured water out of them on the other side. When I got to the other side another girl was laughing because she had just done the exact same thing. Made me feel better. Ironically, Jared skipped across the top dry as can be! Lesson learned on the way back. I went across the top with no problems also!

The midpoint is Hanakapia'i Beach. It is the most dangerous beach on Kauai as there are more drownings here every year than another where else on the island. I guess the currents are just very deceiving. It was a nice place to eat lunch...and dry my shoes. 

One of the many boats and helicopters we saw. Other than this crazy hike, the only access to this part of the coast is by boat or helicopter. We took a boat just like that a few days later!

Approaching the 3.5 mile marker. That black wall was amazing because it had little water trickling down it all over the place. This sits below the Wai'ale'ale which is one of the wettest spots on Earth as it get on average 440 inches of rain per year! As a result, you get beautiful waterfalls in random places!

Such beautiful views up here in the clouds!

We took some time to rest, contemplate, and takes lots of pictures as this is definitely one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

The view going back down

Love the flowers way up here:

Long way down!

A little ledge on the edge of a cliff. I think Jared thought I was a little nuts, but I loved it. There is something very exhilarating about feeling like you're on the edge of the world. Maybe Parker gets his little adrenaline junky thing from me. ha!

One of the many helicopters we saw.

My view looking up :)

Selfie in the jungle...

...and the beach. All at the same time! Just turn around! Craziness.

We came back tired, but definitely feeling like that was a lifetime kind of memory. I was so giddy the whole time. Definitely one of the highlights of our trip! A must do if you're ever in Kauai!