ADAM HAYDOCK

After the Awaawapuhi Trail, I headed up to the tippy top of the mountain for a afternoon hike on the Pihea and Alakai Swamp trail.  I follow the winding road through the clouds as it seemed to get thicker as I got to the top and after about a 15 minute drive, I am at the foggy and surprisingly crowded top. Here I am at the top and I can not see anything over the edge or the Kalalau Valley from the top. wah wahh.....

Mokihana and other cloud forest altered plants can be found on the Pihea trail as well as the connecting Alakai Swamp trail.

The trail becomes really muddy to the point where you might just decide to run through the mud which actually will take less time and give you an an opportunity to go around some of the other visitors attempting to preserve their shoes from the inevitable mud slogging fate they will end up finding as they pursue the connection trail.  

There is a hill of sorts to walk up with mud slogging handholds and some "deepish" mud that reminded me a bit of caving back in the Midwest but it wasn't as bad as some people have made it out to be, truth be told, you will get a bit muddy but if you made it this far, chances are that you might like playing in the mud a bit, I know I did.

Once at the top, you have a choice to take a trail that takes you down to the Kalalau Trail or continue in another direction to the cloud forest and the kilohana overlook.

Heading towards the Cloud forest, the plants have altered just a bit more as I hiked towards the swamp and found that planking boards were layed down on the ground which prevent people from getting their feet wet and from ruining the ground thereby preserving the bog.

There is a fence blocking the outbreak of pigs that have eaten and destroyed endangered species of plants in the regional area so the State Park decided to roll out a fence to protect a large amount of swamp land and keep the portion of the swamp pristine, good call!!!.

The bottlebrush flowers were starting to bloom and the drosera plants can be seen if you look hard enough in the bog.  The Droersa Angelica is a rare bug hungry carnivorous plant that can not be found in may places on the planet. 

It was interesting to be in this dwarfed cloud forest with the clouds misting through the plants leaving small droplets of water dripping on the moss and ferns below.

The trail soon connected to the Alakai Swamp trail which I followed for a while.  I wrote up this trail which can be read here I decided last minute to pursue the Kilohana overlook as the clouds appeared to start to break and the chance to see the overlook as good.

I followed the trail to the Kilohana lookout and the trail took me down to a stream and back up to a plateau swampland which was sunny! Wow the sun is actually out now, I guess this is a lower more windward side of the mountain so the lookout was about to expose its precious green jewel.

There was a telephone line that was connected across this section of the trail which allowed soldiers in WWII to communicate with each other after the start of the war.  They hung out at the kilohana overlook to communicate any further surprise attacks from the Japanese.

The Waialeale Hole hole hike is at the base of Mt Waialeale which is one of the most, if not theeeee... most impressive cascade hikes that I have ever seen on the planet! A-freakin-mazing, and no wonder why Hollywood filmed Jurassic Park and King Kong among other movies, this place looks like a place time forgot.

Waialeale Blue Hole Hike Kauai Hawaii

The cliff walls dominate the backdrop and the sky as they reach over 4000ft. into the clouds and to the top of one of the wettest places on earth. At the top of  Mt. Waialeale, geologists and volcanologists believe that there use to be an ancient caldera that was built from volcanic activity rising out of the sea 5 + million years ago where the lava flows kept layering on top of one another, thus creating this massive mountain of sorts which is believed to be an ancient caldera.

Waialeale Blue Hole Hike Kauai Hawaii

At the top of Mt. Waialeale a depression was filled in by impermeable volcanic lava flows and subsequently made a cloud forest out of the plateau that is home to some of the rarest plants and swampy growth ranging from wicked looking ferns, adaptive pine trees, and altered grass lands to thrive in this wet environment. The Rainfall is estimated to fall 360 days out of the year thus making this dwarfed eco-system, a fragile habitat at the top. Since the mountain is impermeable to water absorption the water flows down through Waimea Canyon eating itself deeper into the brittle soil deepening the "Pacific Grand Canyon" on one side and flows over the massive 4000ft. cliff on the other side creating waterfalls thousands of feet in length that almost surround the hikers below.

Waialeale Blue Hole Hike Kauai Hawaii

 I had the pleasure to view Mt. Waialeale from the top the day before so I wanted to get a good view of the bottom which ended up being me dragging my jaw the whole time up the trail in pursuit of the blue hole. These falls are so impressive that it was hard to comprehend and think about how high these falls actually were.  When I was there, there must have been at least 12 muli-tiered falls ranging from 2000ft. to 3500ft. cascading down the wall. At times I felt like a velociraptor would come cutting through the bamboo brush or a pterodactyl would fly through the air towards the wall with a shrill sound of dominance in the air but the occasional tour helicopter flying over my head brought me back to reality as they continued to fly periodically for a glimpse of the weeping wall.

Waialeale Blue Hole Hike Kauai Hawaii

I got up super early, once again to park my rental at the arboretum and start out on a 3.5 dirt road hike just to get to the trailhead. My rental could have made it over the first overflow spill on the road to the next spillway, but than I would have some negociating to do with the potholes before running into a swamp of a pothole that was knee deep in water. This must be the natural filter that keeps people from continuing on the road.

Waialeale Blue Hole Hike Kauai Hawaii

 This is where the 4x4 comes in handy and a jeep to clear over the water would be an ideal automobile to have. After this crossing the road is pretty straightforward, you want to turn right at the T-section and take the left at the fork which leads to a gate, follow that to the Jurassic park entrance gate.

Waialeale Blue Hole Hike Kauai Hawaii

 It was interesting to make it to this point because this is where they had the Jurassic park gate and everything looked really familiar. The palms and the dead looking tree in the foreground became familiar and the opening to the Waialeale started to take its gigantic form.

Entrance to Jurassic Park where the entrance to the Waialeale blue hole allows hikers access to the trail head. Not my Photo.

 continuing down the road it got pretty choppy but after a half mile, you make it to a reservoir and the trailhead to the Blue Hole hike.

Waialeale Blue Hole Hike Kauai Hawaii

There was another tour company there with a guide taking people back to the blue hole and although they invited me to join them, I elected to pursue the trail on my own to get as far as I could before I had to turn around.



Waialeale Blue Hole Hike Kauai Hawaii

 It was a going to be a 10 hour trip to the blue Hole so time was running out for me and I had to make a dash for the bamboo forest and wade through the water as the helicopters started to fly over my head carrying tourists for a high overview of this place.  Now that is something I would like to see from above! Rainbows appeared out of the walls and the jungle below like we were in a biological prism of lucky charms.

Waialeale Blue Hole Hike Kauai Hawaii

I waded over boulders and large rocks in the clear water while gawking at the shear cliffs and towering cliff as it appeared to a little get bigger the closer I got to the blue hole. I ran into a waterfall that I had to climb which must be climbed to the left and that took me to some amazing viewing area wall. I continued on but unfortunately the clouds started to roll in and the threat of a flash flood was becoming more evident.  I decided to turn around about 75 percent of the way to the blue hole. booo!!! well at least I am still alive and can return another day, which is something I am absolutely doing in the very short term!! This is a drainage system for one of the wettest places on earth so care must be in consideration when dealing with this hike and flash flood danger.

road to Waialeale Blue Hole, Kauai, Hawaii.

The Blue hole is one stop but people can actually get to the far back where there is a grotto of sorts and the community of towering waterfalls which must be some of the tallest in the world.  It looks like you can almost be surrounded by this from aerial photos.  I hold this hike in high regard and I would even recommend this hike to the most jaded of hikers for its gothic green monster views. It is on my Even Further short list of places to go.  If you are not proficient with stream crossing, flash flood danger, and land navigation, than I recommend hiring a tour guide which will hike with you to the blue hole or beyond. I also ponder how this frontier would accommodate a canyoneering expedition?

Waialeale Blue Hole from above. not my photo

 

FLICKR: https://www.flickr.com/photos/exploration-worldwide/albums/72157663194780316

VIDEO of the Waialeale Blue Hole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQFxwdy5W9A

Like the other Hawaiian islands, Kauai was born under the water and grew out of the ocean from a massive volcano that deposited layers of lavas on top of each other which has helped to create some of the most amazing and colorful mountainous terrain on the planet.

The brittle and thin lava flows on the west side of the island literally have been eroding away as the rainwater from the top of Mt. Waialeale's depression pools and spills down to the west, creating this beautiful display of geological anomaly.  

The main vista of the Waimea canyon range allows any visitor to view the lush green and fiery red mountain range with multiple waterfalls spilling over from the cloud forest and multi tiered waterfall routes that tease my desire to grab 1000ft. of rope and pull down some of these seemingly frontier canyoneering routes.

There is one section at the bottom of Waimea Canyon that has more of a narrow corridor that I was not able to get down to on this trip but it looks like it could have similar properties to the Zion Narrows.

There are some interesting ridge trails that can take you to the top of the waterfalls near the road and some other trails that can take people to some of the ancient workings of volcanic activity as the lava painted and sculpted its way through the island 5.1 million years ago.

I tackled the Kukui trail which takes a sloping route down more than 2000ft. of elevation loss to the canyon floor and up a main canyon corridor where campsites are available for people that want to spend multiple days down at the bottom of Waimea.  

At first I didn't think much of this canyon, yea its pretty from the top, but the bottom had a beauty in itself that I found to be a place that got away from the tour buses and gasping tourists attempting to make their way back up from a bottom bounce hike to the canyon bottom.  The Canyon floor was beautiful and had a serenity to it while being surrounded by ancient volcanic canyons only a few million years old. 

On the way down on the Kukui trail, you pass through different sections of rain forest and desert like environment which gives the trail some really nice variation especially when you comeback up and are making a lot of stops to catch your breath.

The canyon itself was full of lush greenery and water flowing through the rivers, small waterfalls were passed and even though the occasional helicopter passed by from above, it was not that loud as the water drowned out some of the sounds of human technology.

The hike back up was going to be a steep one, especially after a long day of flying and driving around the island just to get to the canyon.
 

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised at how Waimea canyon turned out and how it is very comparable to the massive scale that the Grand Canyon has and even though it is not as long or as old as the Grand Canyon, this place marvels the beauty that volcanos and nature can create especially when earth rises out of the ocean in the way that Kauai did 5 million years ago.  

Next time I am camping at the canyon and checking out some side canyons while I am down there. You can get permits to camp in Waimea Canyon at the visitor center at Kokee state park and they seem pretty easy to obtain.

I set out onto the slimy mud rain forest trail with absolutely nothing to see except for what my dim headlamp provided light on which would flicker like a cheap florescent light that made me start to see things, or that's at least what I thought it was making me see until I looked close and found huge frogs hoping around.   Eventually the Mangrove, Koa, and sausage trees abound the walls of the jungle trail started to forecast a silhouette as day became stronger than nightfall and the suns light became more translucent through the clouds.

The trail itself was interesting as the vegetation was changing into more fern like flora and elephant grass with Banyan and Breadfruit trees peppered around the area. It was a nice rain forest section, peaceful, quiet, until the helicopters started coming by.  At first I thought they might have been DNR patrols but, no, they just kept flying over the valley, one after another and when I got to the vista, I realized what they were doing, tour companies. and lots of them!

As I descended down the trail, I hit some lava mounds that had open vistas that continued downward which gave way for some nice forest views as the sun continued to blast through the clouds.

Unfortunately the clouds prevailed throughout the day which created some flat looking pictures but it made the next hike in the cloud forest that much more interesting.

The spurs of the Napoli Coast started to become more apparent and I knew I was getting closer to the vista overlook which is around 3.5 miles one way from the trailhead on a gentle of steady slope downhill.

I made it to a tall grassland section where the grass was taller than me but a small trail was still evident so I followed that and finally came to a sign that said dangerous cliff...I MADE IT!!!

 I thought that this place was going to be interesting and I was hoping I could at least see the 3000ft. cliffs and this view had it all, it was absolutely outstanding!!! It was a little disorienting to walk out onto the ledge but the ledge walk was mind blowing and, if taken with care, a great view point of the canyons below.

I could see the helicopters flying below me as they popped in and out of the canyon spurs of the Napoli Coast.  I can understand a couple an hour but they seemed to come every 10 minutes or so and sometimes they would be multiple helicopters in one canyon.

They would leave rather quickly and soon I would have this place to myself, well myself and the goats that appeared to defy vertical fear by walking up the near shear cliffs just over the edge! The views below were really impressive! I could see the river at the bottom and the tour boats in the water which was between 3 and 4 thousand feet almost straight down!!  Total and complete eye candy satisfaction being over and in between these two green monster cliffs.

This place was one of the more impressive views I have seen especially being on that small ridge with thousands of feet of cliff on either side.  The goats on these cliffs were climbing slowly up and down on the cliffs on all side of these canyons which was interesting to see these acrobatic animals defy gravity, it was quite the dense gravity zone here and I cant believe they were actually walking down these cliffs.

Back in the hinterlands, the clouds were starting to form again and developed some rain storms that made the hike out a bit more interesting but cooler as the heat of the hike back up raised the temperature level and the rain cooled you back down. Your going to either get wet from seating or from the rain so I did not see a purpose for a rain coat.  

The Awa'awapuhi is a MUST do hike, but I imagine the cliff loop trail that includes this hike would be an epic one as it will take you to different sections of the ridgelines.

I made it back to the car in good time so I headed over to the Alakai Swamp and the Pihea trail for an afternoon hike on top of Kuaui.