kauai day 3: The North Shore

The north shore is the rainy, least developed and probably prettiest side of the island. We started off the day at a bird sanctuary (all the little white dots in the top photo- birds!) The coolest to see were the albatross taking off and land.


We spent most of the day hiking the Kalalau trail along the rugged NaPali coast- if you go the whole distance (22 miles round trip) it takes at least a few days and requires permits- so we only went about 5 hours of the trail- down to the first beach and back.

The trail was steep and gorgeous- and also dangerous, mostly cause it's soooo slippery! There are patches of the trail where you can't get a grip at all and on the other side is a huge cliff drop-off, scary! (sorry - no pics of that- i was working hard not to fall off the mountain)

We saw a guy on the trail who twisted his leg and they had to do a helicopter rescue to get him out-it landed right in front of us.

There are a bunch of stream crossing on the trail- so it's impossible to hike it with out getting muddy up to your waist- Pete also managed to get his shirt filthy- so we bought him a hawaii one at a tourist shop in town so we could stop in a cafe for a much needed snack after the hike.

Me at the beach at the end of our trail and then over looking a Taro field on the drive home.

And where we had our much deserved feast that night...