Kalalau Trail Travel Logs

Bill and Nancy traveled to Kauai with friends, Terry and Bev. One of the highlights of the trip was a 2-day hike on the Kalalau Trail on the Na Pali Coast. Following is Nancy’s Journal of the hike.

My straw hat is flapping around my head like an entangled seagull, the gusting wind yanking the string it’s tied with right into the lump in my throat. My knees are weak, partly because of the long uphill climb behind me, and partly due to the gaping precipice in front of me. Four inches from my right foot, the crumbly terra-cotta trail opens to the wind, sun and gravity. Hundreds of feet below, the waves shred themselves against the sharp rocks, their booms taking several seconds to reach my throbbing eardrums.

It began as two words typed into a web search engine: hiking and Kauai. I was planning a trip to Hawaii and wanted to visit the island of Kauai in spite of it’s claim to being home to the Wettest Place on Earth (a close second is Barry’s pants moments before we sit down to a high stakes cribbage match).

The Sierra Club rates the Kalalau Trail as one of the most difficult trails. I did not know that when I applied for a permit six months before flying to Kauai. I had heard that it was the most spectacular overnight hike, with amazing views of rocky cliffs on the edge of the ocean and deep jungles with countless flowers. I found both descriptions to be true.