28 Apr Vacation on Kaua’i Day 2 – ATVs & waterfall swimming

Friday April 9

The sounds of the waves lulled us to a peaceful sleep and I woke just before our 6:30 alarm. The sun was poking through the clouds over the ocean and we knew it was going to be a fantastic day!

First up we had to pack up camp and hit the road! We were booked on an atv tour at 8:30 just south of Lihue, and we wanted plenty of time to eat breakfast before and get some coffee. We stopped at Java kai in kapaa – our favorite coffee shop, and got some beverages, opting against buying breakfast since we had leftovers in the car.

We made it to Kipu Ranch with plenty of time to finish our breakfast. It was time to check in with all the other people for our only touristy activity we’d planned! Back in November, county of Kauai was offering gift certificates to local businesses as an incentive to get a second covid test after arriving. We were excited to choose a $150 gift certificate each to one of ten places: restaurants and mostly tour companies. I picked the Opakapaka restaurant on the north shore: the closest restaurant to Hā’ena state park where I knew we’d be hiking a lot. Aaron picked Kipu Ranch, a sprawling 4,000 acre property passed down for generations over hundreds of years. Still undeveloped and kept as a nature preserve and ranch land, used heavily in the film industry.

We were checked in and assigned a picnic table to wait by with our atv parked right in front of it. They gave us branded orange bandannas and locally made granola for a snack along the way. We got a quick introduction to the vehicles, how the tour would go, and by 9a we had set off!

The tour was took us all over the Kipu ranch property, historically it was farm land for menehune people – they built a stone fish pond at the end of the valley, in only one day! The tour took us to a wide open valley where various movies have scenes take place: Jurassic Park, Mighty Joe Young, George of the Jungle, Snatched… the setting has given credence to scenes from Africa, Costa Rica, and other tropical locations. Other movies filmed at various parts of the Ranch: Raiders of the Lost Ark, Pirates of the Caribbean, Six Days Seven Nights, the Descendants.. and more I’m probably forgetting.

The drive was bumpy, long and filled with opportunities to get splashed with mud! We stopped a couple more times to get trivia, history and stories from our tour guides. The tour ended with a private waterfall surrounded by towering bamboo.

Aaron and I swam up to the falls for a mud-rinsing shower and after a short commute back to the headquarters, our tour was finished! We thanked our guides and we’re heading back north: it was time for a solid half day of backpacking prep.

We picked up a couple last minute supplies in Lihue and one final stop at the farm to print our overnight parking permit for the week. We said quick hellos and goodbyes again to our farmily as they wished us well to Kalalau.

We had to wait until 5:30 for the highway to Hanalei to open to the public for the night. The highway had closed due to a mudslide over five weeks ago after the island received 15+ inches of rain in a little over two days. The rainy weather of March had done little to ease my stress of our #1 vacation goal: hiking the full 11 mile Kalalau trail via a multi-night backpacking trip. The trail is difficult and unstable, made extremely dangerous with wet weather AND features several river / stream crossings, two of which often swell to impassable depths with even a single day or night of heavy rain upstream.

Since arriving in November, we’d seen relatively few and short windows of good weather for the trail conditions, and permits are required in advance, up to 30 days prior. Our permit window slowly approached: March 11 being the first day we’d be allowed to get permits for Apr 10-15. On March 9 a torrential storm series hit the Hawaiian islands over the course of three days, dumping heavy rainfall causing flash flooding in Maui on the 9th, and carrying on to Kauai, causing more floods and the mudslide on the 11th.

That day, the reservation system for Na’pāli coast went offline and the woman at the office confirmed they wouldn’t be booking future permits until the highway to Hanalei reopened, and all potential flash flood damage on the Kalalau trail could be assessed and problem-solved.

So our plan to hike the trail was on hold, for an indeterminate amount of time, and the rain continued for the first three weeks of March. The road to Hanalei opened for a single traffic lane quicker than expected, after discovering the road beneath the slide was relatively undamaged. The work will still continue for months on the rest of the hillside stabilization and debris removal. The road is currently only open from 5:45am-7:00am, 12:30p-2:00p and 5:30p-11:00p to the public. This complicated all park visitors’ ability to get up to the state park, but much to our surprise and excitement, they reopened the reservation system to new permits on Mar 31, allowing us the opportunity to purchase our permits with just a week to spare. It was the first in the series of dominos to fall allowing us to finally make it to Kalalau.

So we parked at the Princeville shopping center Friday afternoon, waiting for the road to open to Hanalei. We wanted to camp somewhere past the highway construction so we could easily get to Hāʻena State Park the following morning to begin our much awaited trek.

We got into the line of cars about 5:05, wrapping up the road and into the Princeville shopping center parking lot, waiting for the road to open somewhere 5:30-5:45. Luckily the traffic began to move about 5:15 and we were driving up the coast past Hanalei by 5:30. We made it to Hāʻena Beach, just a couple miles shy of the state park. The beach park had an outdoor shower and bathrooms so it made for a comfortable place to do our final preparations for the big day ahead.

The evening went typically with the last of the day’s energy devoted to organizing and packing and rechecking our supplies, along with 15 minutes of terror when we couldn’t find the fuel canister – my mind immediately racing to how we’d be unable to buy another at this time of night, half an island away from any major stores, and 35 min away from the nearest hardware store in Princeville. Luckily we found it soon enough, rolling under the front seat.

Aside from that, and killing an endless stream of mosquitoes that found their way into the car, we were able to fall asleep pretty early and rest easy for the night, feeling ready for the big day ahead.