Kauai Vacation Highlights

There's lots to see on Kauai, and the sights we saw were

AWESOME! Here are some highlights...

As we were driving along Kuhio highway to the north shore, we stopped at this scenic overview. This is Hanalei Valley. Here you can see the fields where taro is grown to be made into poi, a staple in the Hawaiian diet. That's Hanalei River you see in the picture.

Mark Twain called this "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific", and rightly so. It's hard to believe that this arid landscape is part of the Garden Island. To get to this part of the island from the north shore involved a three hour drive around the entire island, but it's only 11 miles across the canyon (as the crow flies) from where we were staying.

This was taken on an attempt to find the Queen's Bath, a natural lava rock pool. The tide was coming in, though, and the waves were fierce, so this is as far as we went. We got some pretty awesome pictures before the hike back up to the car. Poor Dave had to carry all the bags of snorkeling equipment that we couldn't use. Good thing the uphill hike was only a quarter mile!

Wailua Falls is one of the many waterfalls we saw on Kauai. There's a pool at the bottom you could swim in, but that involved a hike 1000 feet down. That's not too bad, until you consider that you have to carry your gear back UP!

Of course, you can't stay on Kauai without going to the beach. This is a picture off of Haena Beach, where some of the movie, South Pacific, was filmed. The shade of blue in the water tells you how deep the water is. This was a wonderful spot for snorkeling (but not for beginners). If you're fortunate, you can even swim with some sea turtles. When the tide was out, you could explore the coral reef with its many, many tide pools, some even large enough to sit in. The sea life in the tide pools was as diverse and interesting as life in the open sea, but on a much smaller scale.

This is a picture of the Maniniholo Dry Cave, just west of where we were staying, across the highway from Haena Beach. If you're not skittish about being in a cave, you can spot cave drawings in the back as well as a curious rock arrangement in a smaller cave at the back.

This is a shot of the sky as seen from inside another cave called the Fern Grotto. To get here, we took a 20-minute ferry ride up the Wailua River. This spot is one of the most frequently selected for exchanging vows. According to our tour guide, there were seven weddings held there that week alone.

On the southern shore of Kauai, just west of Poipu, we found the Spouting Horn. This is a natural tube formed in the lava on the rocky shore. As the waves pound the shoreline, water is forced upward through this tube, while air is forced through another, making a groaning noise. With a little imagination, you can see the Hawaiian legend of the imprisoned dragon come to life.

In the center of the whole island is Mt Waialeale, standing at 5148 feet. It's peak is almost always shrouded in clouds and is the wettest spot in the United States with an average rainfall of 444 inches a year, This rainfall feeds the hundreds of waterfalls and the rivers on Kauai.

The trip would not have been complete without witnessing the sun setting into the ocean. You can't see it in this picture, but we caught sight of the green flash as the sun disappeared into the horizon.

This collage points out places on the island that we took pictures!

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