Frommer's Kauai - Jeanette Foster [125]
Journeying into Eden. For a glimpse of the spectacularly remote Na Pali Coast, all you need to do is hike the first 2 miles along the well-maintained Kalalau Trail into the first tropical valley, Hanakapiai. Hardier hikers can venture another 2 miles to the Hanakapiai waterfalls and pools. Warning: Na Pali’s natural beauty is so enticing that you may want to keep going—but the trail turns rugged and extremely challenging after the 2-mile mark. Contact the State Division of Parks for a permit if you want to camp along the trail. See “Hiking & Camping,” later in this chapter.
Catching a Poipu Wave. Vividly turquoise, curling, and totally tubular; big enough to hang ten yet small enough to bodysurf, the waves at Poipu are endless in their attraction. Grab a boogie board—you can rent one for just dollars a day—or simply jump in and go with the flow. .
Watching the Hula. The Coconut Marketplace, on Kuhio Highway (Hwy. 56) between mile markers 6 and 7, hosts free shows every day at 5pm. Arrive early to get a good seat for the hour-long performances of both kahiko (ancient) and auwana (modern) hula. The real showstoppers are the keiki (children) who perform. Don’t forget your camera!
Bidding the Sun Aloha. Polihale State Park hugs Kauai’s western shore for some 17 miles. It’s a great place to bring a picnic dinner, stretch out on the sand, and toast the sun as it sinks into the Pacific, illuminating the island of Niihau in the distance. Queen’s Pond has facilities for camping as well as restrooms, showers, picnic tables, and pavilions. .
Polihale State Park
This mini-Sahara on the western end of the island is Hawaii’s biggest beach: 17 miles long and as wide as three football fields. This is a wonderful place to get away from it all, but don’t forget your flip-flops—the midday sand is hotter than a lava flow. The golden sands wrap around Kauai’s northwestern shore from Kekaha plantation town, just beyond Waimea, to where the ridgebacks of the Na Pali Coast begin. The state park includes ancient Hawaiian heiau (temple) and burial sites, a view of the “forbidden” island of Niihau, and the famed Barking Sands Beach, where footfalls sound like a barking dog. (Scientists say that the grains of sand are perforated with tiny echo chambers, which emit a “barking” sound when they rub together.) Polihale also takes in the Pacific Missile Range Facility, a U.S. surveillance center that snooped on Russian subs during the Cold War; and Nohili Dune, which is nearly 3 miles long and 100 feet high in some places.
Be careful in winter, when high surf and rip currents make swimming dangerous. The safest place to swim is Queen’s Pond, a small, shallow, sandy-bottomed inlet protected from waves and shore currents. It has facilities for camping, as well as restrooms, showers, picnic tables, and pavilions. There is no lifeguard. To get here, take Highway 50 past Barking Sands Missile Range and follow the signs through the sugar-cane fields to Polihale. Local kids have been known to burglarize rental cars out here, so don’t leave tempting valuables in your car.
THE COCONUT COAST
Lydgate State Park
This coastal park has a rock-walled fishpond that blunts the open ocean waves and provides one of the few safe swimming beaches on the Coconut Coast and the best snorkeling on the eastern shore. The 1-acre beach park, near the mouth of the Wailua River, is named for the Rev. J. M. Lydgate (1854–1922), founder and first pastor of Lihue English Union Church, who likely would be shocked by the public display of flesh here. This popular park is a great place for a picnic or for kite flying on the green. It’s 5 miles north of Lihue on Kuhio Highway (Hwy. 56); look for the turnoff just before the Kauai Resort Hotel. Facilities include a pavilion, restrooms, outdoor showers, picnic tables, barbecue grills, a lifeguard, and parking.
Wailua Beach
This popular beach includes Wailua River State Park and Wailua Bay. The draw here is the 100-foot-wide beach that runs for about a half mile from the Wailua River to a rocky