Road Trip to Kauai!

During the first few days in Hawaii, Amy and I were trying to figure out if we could island hop for a day.  If the price was right, then we were going to road trip through an island.  Well, the price was right and we got Kauai!  We spent the entire day in Kauai, and by entire day I mean sunrise to sunset.

Amy and I got to Honolulu airport at 4:30 in the morning to board our plane to take us to Kauai.  We were on the road by 6:15!  The sun hadn't even risen yet, so driving along the coast we were able to see the sun rise.  We drove North, so we could hike the Na Pali Coast.  We took a little detour before getting to the Na Pali Coast where we saw goats just roaming the roads.  Once back on track, we made it to Kalalau Trailhead in Ha'ena State Park.  We hiked 2 miles to Hanakapi'ai Beach and an additional 2 miles to a 300 foot waterfall.  The hike was a lot of work, but the views were totally worth it!

Kauai Sunrise!

Driving around the bend you wouldn't expect to see this guy...

View from trail

View of the coastline from the trail

2 miles in and we made it to Hanakap'ai Beach

The trail was muddy and rocky!

4 miles later, we made it to the Waterfall!

After our 4 hour hike to the waterfall and back for a grande total of 8 miles, Amy and I quickly changed and headed to Hanalei Town.  We grabbed lunch and walked around the town's stores for a bit.  Once on the road again, we headed to Kilauea Lighthouse.  It is located on a wildlife sanctuary, which ended up being closed for the week.  We looked for whales since it was a spot for whale watching, but we didn't find any.  From the lighthouse, we headed to Poipu where we could find Spouting Horn, a blowhole.

Kailauea Lighthouse

Spouting Horn

Our last stop of the day was to see the Waimea Canyon.  We drove through the Waimea Canyon, which is known as "the Pacific Grand Canyon."  It was a scenic drive around sunset.  We drove through the entire canyon, and when we got to the end we kind of freaked out.  We realized that we had driven the entire island in one day!  We went from one end of the Na Pali Coast to the other.

Not as grand as the Grand Canyon

You can see the "Forbidden" Hawaiian island, Niihau, in the distance!

Road Trip around Kauai!

As we left the Waimea Canyon, we stopped to take sunset pictures on the beach.  It was so cool to think that we have seen the sunrise and sunset on both Oahu and Kauai!  Heading back towards the airport, we grabbed dinner at a local place called Dukes.  It had great bar food.  From there we headed back to the airport to get home.  Being awake for 20 hours was totally worth the day trip to Kauai!

Sunset in Kauai