Napali Coast
Nape of NaplesKayak Kauai's Na Pali Coast
Na Pali's coastline (literally translates as "the cliffs") is untouched and undeveloped: no streets, no streets, no hotels, no cellphones. Whilst there are several ways to explore this jagged coast - by chopper, sailing boat, Zodiac speed boat or the 11 miles long and sometimes hair-raisingly small Kalalau Trail hewn into the rock faces - the most exciting way to enjoy the full panoramic view of the summits, the skies and the waters is without a doubt by seakayak.
Canoeing its 17 leagues in three stages - from Haena Beach Park on the northern bank to Polihale State Park in the western part - and spending the night at the campsites of Hawaii State Park in Kalalau and Milolii is a gradual and intense one. Kayaker drivers can discover the ocean caverns of the islands and walk at their own pace into the valley, not to speak of the waterfall showers and falling to sleep to the sound of the sound of wakes under the starry sky, which are as light as a storm of meteorites.
In Hanalei, on the northern bank, Napali Kayak provides several-day tour packages, including at least the first stage of the voyage with a tour leader, rowing twin canoes, backrests, canoes, drying sacks and buoyancy aids. When the journey from Haena Beach to the first campsite in Kalalau runs without a hitch, the leader can allow the kayaker to go down the coast alone.
Kayak drivers should take at least four full day's supply, groceries and cleaning pills, as the springs (waterfalls!) are unfilters. Awesome tales of skin burns, sea sickness and strain fill overview pages and reports about ruthless kayaker drivers who had to save the surf. This route begins at dusk in Haena Beach Park, just north of Hanalei, when the Pacific Ocean is quietest.
After the kayak riders have left the rest behind, the full vastness of the Na Pali coast comes to light. The Kalalau Beach is about seven leagues ahead. Throughout the trail, groups of guide will guide you into caverns that cut off the coast, where streams of alpine waters create falls that run out of the holes and beat ripples against the wall.
Arrived in the middle of the afternoon sun, Kalalau looks abandoned; the camper have withdrawn to places in the middle of the tree wreath. On the western end of the shore, an ice-cold cascade is used as a well. Kalalau is like a rural party, a la Bonnaroo or Glastonbury. Kalalau deserves a longer break from the two camping grounds on the coast.
In a chilly early mornings, it is ideal for a walk into the Kalalau valley, where rising wild guavas and mangos provide shelter. In the afternoon you can snorkel or explore a lonely cave sandy spot at low tide in the western part, where gentle arcs of stones have been carved by the sea ice and giant blocks of whale like formations soar up.
Further caverns pass through the five miles long path to Milolii Camps, the biggest and most spectacular of which is the open cavern, which looks like a mermaids-cavern. It is a cliff formations perfectly suited for sunbathing and photography, protruding from the middle of the basin, and the cliffs are covered with the kind of natural look and feeling of something immersed that many of these caverns have in winters.
This is a challenging course to paddle around the turn of the isle, where the corals need kayak drivers to flay a few hundred meters from the coast. Navigation through canal markings that signal the way through the own core sandy area to the sea is followed by kayak drivers in a relatively luxurious setting, with an outside showers, a tap for flowing waters, outbuildings and pick nickers.
It' a quiet, simple place to tent - like a shipwrecked village, with a long deserted Parkranger hut - but there's not much to discover. Since Milolii is situated on the arid west side of Kauai, there are also less shadows. Nevertheless, snorkeling in Milolii is an exciting afternoons and it is great pleasure to collect corals and mussels in the sands.
Passing Milolii the rocks and mud brick remains are growing. There' s no more ocean caverns to be explored, no more cascades - just the pledge that civilization will shimmer on the shore at the end of the Na Pali coast: Police State Park. This is a fair prize for Na Pali Coast vets who have mastered one of the most wild adventure in the USA.
From mid-May to September it is kayaking on the coast of Na Pali, as the winters swell up to 50ft and the excursions in the cold season are uncertain. From $380 per passenger, inclusive gear, a Kalalau guided tour and transport from the store to the storage point in Haena Beach Park and from Polihale Beach Park back to the store at the end of the tour.....
Kalalau and Milolii camp site permissions should be obtained at least two month prior to departure by Hawaii's Department of Land and Natural Resources ($20 per capita per day for Hawaiians).