07 Jun Vacation on Kaua’i Day 12

Monday April 19

We slept in Monday, knowing we had ample time in the park to enjoy as the day warmed up with the sun. After an oatmeal breakfast, we grabbed our day packs and drove up to the Awa’awapuhi trailhead, a few miles up the road. The parking lot was busy but not full, and we set out for our 6 mile hike at about noon.

The hike was to an overlook of the Nā’pali Coast and since we were basically at the top of the island, the hike was 3 miles downhill to the turnaround. We passed several groups of return hikers, red-faced and out of breath as they finished their climb back to the parking lot. Aaron and I had both admitted to feeling low-energy, so we were taking a relaxed but swift pace downhill. The trail was wide and fairly steep in some sections, laden with tree roots and stones. The first mile featured some small overlooks into Kalalau valley and the ocean disappearing into the sky.

At roughly the one mile mark, hiking disaster struck. Aaron badly stubbed his toe on a wayward stick that was pointing out of the mud, so we got out the first aid kit, cleaned it up and put a bandaid on it. The nail was pretty injured and he was in significant discomfort walking. We made the quick and obvious decision to go back to the car. Aaron offered to go back alone if I wanted to finish the hike, but in being honest with myself I didn’t have much motivation to go at 2-3 more hours of strenuous hiking alone.

It was disappointing thinking that we were likely done with our hiking activities in Kōke’e. As we marched uphill in silence, I realized that maybe we weren’t just done hiking — maybe we were really done camping as well. We’d been sleeping in a tent or the car for the last 11 days, and it was just all starting to feel draining. We were also looking at the weather for the following day, and seeing basically a 100% chance of rain most of the day up at the park. Knowing we couldn’t hike, and if the weather was too wet we’d be confined to either the car or the tent — it didn’t take me long to decide to immediately look up hotel options for our final nights on the island. We could stay the night at our camp since it was already mid afternoon, cook our final camp meal, then sleep easy knowing it was our last night without a real bed. 

Once we got back to the car, still fairly out of breath from the 1.5 mile uphill, we drove down to the edge of the park to get cell service so I could check for hotels. We had pretty tight criteria for success; we wanted to be close to Princeville on the north shore so we could easily check out the famous Tiki Iniki bar that was finally reopening, we wanted laundry access, and we didn’t want to spend more than $200 / night. So I quickly pulled up various apps for lodging and began my quest. 15 min later, I had booked a 1 at Makai Club Resort in Princeville for 2 nights, full kitchen and washer/dryer, king bed and a queen pullout in the living room for $375!

We were CELEBRATING our choice and felt in much better spirits for our last night in the dense cloud forest at the top of Kaua’i.

We returned to camp by 4p, and I started working on our final camping feast. We had stopped at a grocery store for some last minute veggies to add to a pot of rice and lentils. As I sliced some mushrooms, bok choy, and garlic from the farm and set things to cooking in our backpacking cookware.

We sampled our bottle of Hanalei Spirits Lilikoicello and listened to music while things sizzled. Another camper wandered down our mowed path to our lovely campsite and introduced herself. It was a really nice chat and the only other camper we talked to, though at least 4 other sites were filled by that night. 

The dinner came along slowly but surely and soon we were eating bowls of veggies and rice as the sun set. The clouds had moved in and the night grew misty. We struggled to stay awake past 9:30p and drifted off listening to the rain!