Living Positive: The Beautiful..and soggy..Waimea Canyon

June 18, 2021

We got an early start today in order to drive to the southwest part of the island in search of the Waimea Canyon. It took us about two hours to get there. The island is round and there is only one road that connects the north shore and the west side of the island. You cannot drive completely around the island because of the rugged Na Pali coast on the west side. The southern part of the island is much drier than the northern part because it does not get as much rain. As a result, the vegetation is not as lush and filled in.

We climbed in elevation as we got closer to the rim of Waimea Cayon which is known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. It is not as big as the Grand Canyon but it is ten miles long and 3,000 feet deep and it is gorgeous! It is very colorful with red dirt and green vegetation. The canyon was formed 10 million years ago when a central volcano collapsed. The Waimea river has carved its way through the bottom of the canyon.

After visiting a few overlooks, we decided to do the Canyon Trail hike which ends at the top of the Waipo’o Falls. I had read that this viewpoint of the falls is just as good as the view you get from hiking down to the bottom of the canyon. Since the descent to the bottom is 2,000 feet and there are no escalators to bring you 2,000 feet back up, we went with the Canyon Trail.

The trail was through the thick forest with many rocks and big roots to navigate. There were several beautiful overlooks with not enough railings in my opinion. I’m not a big fan of heights. It started raining a little when we got to the end and there was a little confusion about where the waterfall overlook was. Don scrambled down some slippery rocks to a ledge and said, “Here it is!” Through the rain, which was much heavier at this point, I shouted that he should take a picture because there was no way I was going to slide my way down to a ledge of a canyon with no railing! A few anxious minutes of stressing that I was newly widowed, Don reappeared. I could not see a waterfall in any of the pictures that he took so I had to take his word for it. I guess we should have hiked to the bottom!

The 1.8 mile hike back to the car was very, very wet. It was pouring so hard that streams of water were gushing down where the trail was supposed to be so our feet were completely soaked and caked with red mud. It wasn’t cold, however and we had rain jackets on so I decided to soldier on. Don made us some walking sticks which helped us get over the slick rocks and roots and we eventually found ourselves back at the car about the time the rain stopped and the sun emerged. While wringing our socks out we pondered the question, why did it rain so hard on us on the south side of the island where rain was not frequent and it has not rained once on us while we have been on the “rainy” northern side? I guess we’re just lucky like that!

We decided that we had earned a great Hawaiian BBQ lunch so we found a highly rated place in Waimea. Chicken In a Barrel BBQ is a popular chain on the island and this one is situated on an old plantation that has been converted into a little resort. We had a great view of the plantation from the deck and the food was delicious or we were just starving…

Next on the agenda was the Kauai Coffee Plantation. Alex’s only request was that we bring him back some Kona coffee. Well, since Kona coffee only comes from Kona on the big island, we decided to check out Kauai coffee. It turns out that Kauai Coffee is the largest coffee farm in the United States with over 4 million coffee trees. First we did the coffee tasting. I’m a cream and sugar person so I didn’t know how I would like straight coffee but I could really taste the difference between the different roasts. Being the nerd tourists that we are, we did the self guided walking tour around the farm and learned a few things. Kauai coffee actually started as the McBryde Sugar company in the 1800s and grew sugar cane. It wasn’t until 1987 that they diversified their crop to coffee. We would love to come back in the spring when all these 4 million coffee plants are blooming. What a sight and smell that would be! Harvest runs mid October through early December, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That’s a lot of coffee!

You don’t go to the southern part of Kauai without seeing the Spouting Horn so we set out to find it. It is located on the coast in Po’ipu and I called this the Hawaiian version of Yellowstone’s Old Faithful except it was more frequent and a lot less smelly! Basically, this is a blowhole where the strong tide moves the water under the lava shelf, the water gets forced through a nature made rock tube and shoots out the top of the rock. The larger the wave, the larger the blast. The legend is that a large lizard was chasing a swimmer. The swimmer tricked him by swimming under the lava shelf and escaped through the hole. The lizard got stuck in the tube and is there for eternity. The hiss and the roar of the water is actually the lizard’s breath. Regardless of the origin, it was quite addicting to watch. An added bonus was a sea turtle who decided to float around the rocks while we were there.

We made it back to our condo in time for happy hour and the sunset. Needless to say, we were exhausted!

At the Waimea Canyon