Hawaii 10 - Waimea Canyon

 Hawaii: Day last.

Last day on the island, and we're going to make it count. We're all feeling a little worn out and maybe covidy... but we haven't let that stop us yet, so why start now? Today we're hiking Waimea canyon. Not all of it, it's 14 miles (as the crow flies) of brutal terrain,  but we've picked out two hikes, and we're going to finish strong.

The drive up is very promising, we get occasional glimpses of the canyon as we wind our way 19 miles horizontally and almost a vertical mile up the mountain, and those teasers reveal a massive chasm. But we skip every overlook, drawing out the suspense. Not for any narrative purpose, mind you - we want to make sure we hit the top overlook before the clouds do, and those with plans for a long hike are impatient to get moving before Kauai bakes in the heat, so we beeline to the peak.

The peak actually overlooks the backside of the canyon. We saw it from the air yesterday, and it's even more gorgeous from the ground. Lush cliffs plunging down to the valley floor in only a couple of miles before they meet the sea. This is pretty close to our beach-day, and it looks the part. The beach (where they buried kings!) at the bottom would be even better, but it's a 15 mile hike to get to.... so definitely not happening. We saw several helicopters beneath us, and a single tourist plane pass over. It must have been our pilot (or his wife, they trade off). Back on ground, there's a trail that goes past the official overlook, and it's even better. This trail lets you walk right up to the edge and look down, giving you a better view and that euphoric tingle that comes with heights.

We then backtracked to the second overview, which was largely a worse version of the peak.  However it had an excellent angle on a gorgeous quadruple-waterfall on the far wall, plus standing on top of a mountain is always a fun.

We then headed down the mountain to the trailhead for the canyon hikes, which doubled as a lookout opposite the coastal views.  The canyon side of the mountain is insane. It's just mind-bogglingly deep, and it stretches 10? [11.2 from the lookout] miles to the opposite side of the island.  And the whole thing is steep treacherous rock faces, vegetation where it can hang on, cliffs and scree where it can't. We chilled at the overlook for a bit and had lunch (and hopefully shot a timelapse). Then, Adam, Dani, and Sage (she's such a badass) all set off for their hike. They had a brutal 4 mile loop picked out, and none of the rest of us felt up to 4 miles on terrain this steep. Sans covid, I probably would have sent it... but Temet Nosce.

Recognize anyone?

After another 10-15 minutes, we lightened our packs and set off for the clifftop overlook trail. This was supposed to be a quick 0.6 in-and-out, but as we set off it became apparent this was not your standard hike, it quickly headed steeply downhill, and didn't stop until it was time to head steeply uphill. My mom was starting to admit to herself that she may also have the covid despite her negative test (which she told the whole beach about yesterday), and while she kept up a good pace she was apprehensive about the fact that we'd have to climb all those makeshift tree-root stairs we just descended. Metagame aside, it was totally worth it. We came out on a ledge that was deeply within the canyon (though admittedly close to the top). Probably 1000' above  ground level, but the local minimum would itself be the top of a 500' waterfall  a thousand feet downslope. It's such a cool landscape to be in, and we could see another trail on the next cliff a half-mile down. "I wonder if that's Adam and Dani" we joked... and then checked with the binoculars. It wasn't them. But [literally 20] a few seconds later two more hikers walked out the same trail and it became more serious "Wait, what color shorts was Adam wearing today? Blue? I really think that's them!"

We decided it was, so I called my brother. He answered the phone "Hey, can you see us?"  We waved back and forth, checked in, and after further perusing of the canyonside - enjoying the payoff of our hike - we turned around and started back.

How about now?

We chose to take the alternate track out. To be honest, my mom chose the  alternate track and my dad and I were both totally cool with the easier solution.  Coming off the cliff, we veered off onto a 4x4 road, figuring that had to be easier than what we just hiked. It was definitely easier, but also far longer. However, it was different landscape than what we'd just passed through, and the grade - while a steady climb - was similar to iki crater and never pushed us to exhaustion.  So we hiked at least a mile up this moderate track, only passing one 4x4, and then walked back down the main road to our lookout, for a total loop of around 2.3m (vs 2x 0.5 as the crow flies).

Back up top we re-rehydrated, and dad and I walked over to the lunch lookout to see if we could spot our trail.  Unfortunately it was just around the curve of the rock, which wasn't a surprise since we couldn't see this lookout from the trail earlier. As I was about to head back to the car I saw a bush-trail that headed straight towards our lookout, and figured others might have had these same thoughts, so I followed it to see if they found a view.

It was such a great view. I could have skipped the exhausting hike and just done this one. The trail was super sketchy, and it skirted the lip of the canyon, over the hump, and then gave great views of the other side. However if they made this an official trail... people would die. It was that delightfully on the edge. I was even slightly sketched, which obviously means I loved it. Great view, quite invigorating. In order to get a clear panorama showing both trails - ours and Adam/Dani's - I had to creep down the parabolic falloff (water towers have the same slope.... it's hard to know exactly what slope becomes fatally too much slope) to a tree on the edge, lock onto that, and then shoot. It was the sort of sketchy that brings hyper-awareness to every step, without being reckless.  Like I said, great trail. And then the trail continued and very quickly dumped me back in the parkinglot.

Our hike is the left star, and we spotted Adam/Dani/Sage at the right star!

So I walked down the parkinglot and grabbed my dad, and took him up to the sketchy overlook. He loved it. Then we killed some time and a mere 45 minutes later Adam and Dani (carrying Sage) came up the trail - the exact steep brutal ascent we avoided - having done 4.6 miles in just over 2 hours. Sage was hungry, so while Dani took care of that I showed Adam the sketchy overlook, and I followed him the down an even sketchier route back. It's a great day.

After getting the baby fed and the adults hydrated, we set off back towards home, figuring we'd find one more overlook on the way, We ended up at the official mid-canyon overlook, which really drove home how large this canyon is.  Far to the left, so far that people are only visible with binoculars and still look like ants, were the trails we were on. We spent hours and buckets of sweat to cover that tiny portion of the canyon.... And the panorama wrapped around to stretch another 10 miles past us towards the sea, with side canyons constantly. Waterfalls peeked out here and there, with countless more hiding around the bends (but hinted at by the constant helo flights looping through canyons). In the foreground, we could see that the erosion had eaten away the softer rock, leaving the harder, blacker basalts behind - but that wasn't true everywhere, as some portions were pure fractal erosion of of homogenous rock. The contrast revealed the bones of dead volcanos and geological violence, and was a super cool way to finish off the canyon. TBH we did this overlook in two shifts so someone could stay with the baby, and I went up with both shifts, because it's just that cool. And because I love - at a deep reptilian level - fighting strong winds on sketchy cliffs, even if these particular cliffs have railings.

Canyons conquered, we set off in search of shave-ice. The traditional Hawaiian treat, they are allegedly more delicate and fancier than snowballs (the traditional Baltimore treat which I don't care for either). You can have anything mixed in.... ice cream, condensed milk, coolaid in different layers... I just wanted blue (the best) flavor, and it was no better (but no worse) than any snowcone you'd find in any state across the nation. But any snowcone is still delicious after spending all day hiking mountains.

After that we headed home for-real forreal, because I had to pee real bad and all the portapots were locked. Wtf. I stumbled across the historical swinging bridge (DO NOT SWING THE BRIDGE), but there were tourists so I couldn't pee there, which was my only priority. We made it home,  relieved any emergencies, unloaded the car, and my parents ran out to the drug store since we'd run out of covid tests.

Back home, we took the baby over to baby-beach (the name of the beach we are staying at), to the baby-pool!  The locals had stacked the rocks to form a bit of a cove-within-the-cove, leaving a clear area where kids can play without worrying about stepping on rocks, getting too deep, or the waves being too strong. Scientific testing shows that contrary to the name, babies do not love the baby-pool at baby-beach. But do you know who does? Sea Cucumbers! I counted 10 of them (not knowing what they were), on the rocks bordering the pool. While we were trying identify them, Adam poked one. So I had to touch one, because those are the rules I guess? If you have brothers I'm sure you understand. Slugs are the one animal I truly despise, and sea cucumbers are lumped together in my mental taxonomy and hatred.  They were surprisingly firm (like a cooked steak), not slimy, and still disgusting. Also, can they change colors? I swear one went from white with small brown dots to red with white dots. Anyways, the baby was super happy on the beach out of the slug-pond, my parents got home, walked over, and dad did some snorkeling. The imaginary green flash was again stymied by clouds at sunset.

We cleaned ourselves up for dinner, ate all the leftovers, and packed for our 7am flight. It's kinda sad, but it's been great.  To finish out the trip my mom just got her test results, and on the last night of the last day she joined the rest of us in our positive club. Like always I need a vacation from vacation - some real sleep, a few days of recovery, and then I'll be dying to go again.