Kauai Day 2! - Waimea Canyon by Kenny & Kristen

Our second full day in Kauai we headed out early to make it to Waimea Canyon. In our constant attempt to find affordable food in Hawaii, we had bought some muffin mix a few days before but turns out there was no muffin pan in the AirBnB. So – we made it into pancakes for the road! With Blueberry muffin pancakes in hand and a groggy toddler that recently learned to say no to everything, we headed out for Waimea Canyon. About 45 minutes out from Princeville we reached our first stop of the drive – Wailua Falls. We were the only ones in the parking lot when we got there around 8. To Quin’s delight – there were tons of wild chickens running around the parking lot which he excitedly chased. You got a good view of the water fall from the parking lot, but there were tons of signs warning you not to climb down and explore more.  After checking out the falls for a few minutes we continued on our way to Waimea Canyon. It was a neat drive across the island where we finally got to see where we got to see where a lot of the locals seem to live. The first stop in Waimea Canyon was at the Waimea Overlook. The sign said it was $10 to park and then $5 / person. We thought we were being smart by trying to park outside of the parking area to save us half price, but it turns out the only way to pay is with a license plate number… so we had to pay the full $20 anyway. Plus the fee applies to every stop in the park, not just the first. But oh well, supporting state parks is a good cause for some extra cash. The lookout was beautiful. There was a man at the lookout dressed in ancient Hawaiian garb and educating visitors about the area and culture. He talked to us about the local landmarks and pointed out the wettest spot on Earth! We also had great views of Waipo’o Falls.  Next we continued on our drive to the next overlook and our planned trailhead for a hike. Our research indicated that you could take Waimea Canyon trailhead out ~1.8 miles for a family friendly hike to a big cliff overlook and a view of the upper falls. Kenny was carrying Quin in his hiking backpack and I was 7 months pregnant – so family friendly seemed like a fitting hike. To our surprise the trail was really difficult! Not only was it full of mud and water (I guess this makes sense being right next to the wettest place on Earth), but it was also steep and had a ton of fallen trees as obstacles to duck and weave around. The first ¾ of a mile took us almost an hour on it’s own. Afterward it got a little easier and the trail opened up near the end to some amazing views of the surround canyon, the top of Waipo’o falls and a nice surprise of another upper waterfall feeding into it.  Now covered in mud and starving, we drove around Waimea canyon a little more before deciding to call it a wrap and head back down to the nearest town to grab tacos for lunch at Island Tacos. The tacos were good, but the refried beans at this place were amazing! (which I don’t think I’ve ever said before). Quin fell asleep in the car right after lunch so we took our time driving for a bit and found ourselves in old Hanapepe town. According to the mural this is the town that inspired the town in Lilo and Stitch! There were some cute shops (I picked up some local macademia nut cookies), but we didn’t find all of the treasures of Hanapepe until later in the week. Our last stop before heading home was the Kauia Coffee Company. I grabbed a few free samples and then we walked around the grounds and learned about Hawaii coffee production.  It took us almost 2 hours total to get back to the AirBnB in Princeville. We were exhausted and ended up just grabbing some food from the food trucks in the parking lot and calling it a night.

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