The One with Kauai Day Three

Monday morning we woke up bright and early to hike the Kalalau Trail. This hen and her baby chicks were in the parking lot to greet us :)

Potty stop! Love the bright green doors.

The BEFORE shot. Happy and energetic. Let's get this show on the road!

The entire hiking crew. Chris stayed behind to watch Fox. Thanks for taking one for the team lover!

The view of the beach at the beginning. The water is such a pretty shade of blue.

The first leg of the hike is a STRENUOUS 2 mile stretch from Ke'e Beach to Hanakapi'ai Valley.

We were debating over the past few days whether or not Chris would be able to come with us with Fox in a Baby Bjourn. Within the first 10 seconds of the hike we decided that no, we made the right decision not having him come. As my dad declared, every step could have been your last! We climbed up and over rocks, waded through rivers, trudged through mud 6 inches deep, caused the death of a few million ants skittering along the trail, and all of this was done in 90 degree weather with 99% humidity. But my final consensus? TOTALLY WORTH IT. The views and waterfall at the end made every bit of pain negligible.

Everytime I mentioned to someone we were going to Kauai they always said, "Oh you HAVE to see the Na Pali coast!" I know the best views are from the ocean looking straight on, but that costs money and hikes are free! So seeing the mountains from the hike we did! Here is the best view we got and it was mighty amazing.

I love that someone took the time to set up this leaf to drain water.

Crazy roots!

A mini waterfall.

Wading through a river.

Thankfully the many trees blocked out a lot of heat produced from the sun.

Bamboo forest.

Many people had carved their names into the bamboo.

The first big milestone at the 2 mile mark was this beach.

Someone had stacked all these rocks together on the beach, Blair Witch style!

A feral cat (I couldn't tell if it was a kitten or just a tiny full grown cat) sniffed us out. I wanted to put her in my pocket and take her home.

Then we literally we walked through this deep and sticky mud for a mile and climbed rocks for the final mile. I used muscles I never even knew I had!

Views like this simply take my breath away.

At last we reached Hanakapi'ai Falls.

From a girl who considers walking up and down the stairs of our apartment the extent of her exercising, an 8 mile strenuous hike is a pretty darn big deal!

I'm totally paying for it in my muscles today. But like I said, worth it.

I wish I had worn a swimsuit so I could have jumped in the lake. Allie did.

I would have cleaned all the mud off my legs at the waterfall, but I wanted Chris to see how tough I am :)

We made it!

Not gonna lie, I honestly and truly didn't know if I'd be able to make it back to the car in one piece. My family was really encouraging and lifted my spirits enough to continue taking pictures.

Back at the halfway point beach we walked over to what looked like a deep and mysterious cave, but it was just a 6 foot deep round hole in the wall.

At long last we made it back to the car. This is the after photo. Still alive. Just barely :) And thankful that the hike was as beautiful as everyone said it was gonna be!

Here is a GPS tracking that my dad took of our hike. On the bottom left where the red line zigzags up and down was the tough part. We went from sea level at the beach straight up hundreds (if not thousands) of feet and then back down and back up (who MADE this trail!?!?) in only a short distance. But all's well that ends well!

On the way home we stopped at Shave Ice Paradise.

Our colorful concoctions.

On the drive back to base we noticed all of the houses are built on stilts!

Back at the hotel I showed off my battle wounds to Chris and then took a long shower and then we lounged on the grass outside next to a chicken.

For dinner we went back across the street to that shopping center and ate burgers at Poipu Tropical Burgers.

What a goof!

Nom nom nom.

We put Fox to sleep for the night and then watched The Bachelorette. Not even vacation in paradise can stop us from watching this show!!

PS - Thanks Allie for letting me use your nice camera!