Na Pali Coast - Hiking to Hanakapi’ai Falls

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We woke up on our own at 5:30am this morning. Still getting over the time change, we decided to walk down to the beach at our resort to watch the sunrise from Waipouli Beach. It was gorgeous. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

We got a late start hitting the road, half intentionally (since the views of the Na Pali coast are most vivid in the afternoon hours) and half because we’re going at our own island pace. It was 10:00am when we hit the road going east on route 50 toward Hanalei Bay beach and then the Na Pali coast hike entrance at Ke’e beach. We’re going to hike 4 miles each way (8 miles round trip) up to the 300’ secluded Hanakapia’I Falls.

As we got closer to Hanalei Bay, we can see other waterfalls coming down the lush green mountains ahead. Palm trees, papaya trees and colorful floral vines line the streets always with the Pacific Ocean through the brush to the right. It’s such an exotic feel. I roll down the windows so I can feel and smell the salty air.

Hanalei Bay is a beautiful beach. Soft white sands in a crescent shape around the bay. It’s a beautiful Monday, and the beach is relatively empty. Michael and I get out of the car and walk along the beach for the length of it this took about 40 minutes there and back.

We get back to the car and continue to travel toward Ke’e. It’s a straight shot after turning right getting out of the beach parking lot, so it’s impossible to get lost. Soon the curvy roads start to get narrow. We dip down and up, right and left making our way through these back roads. Every few feet there is a single lane bridge where we have to wait our turn to pass. I think there were 5 of these on the way, with the last one being about 80 feet long. We arrive at Ke’e and it is near impossible to find parking. We drive all the way to the end and have to do a K turn to turn around. We head back past the prominent cave on the mountain side and find a car leaving out of the parking lot to our left. We’re lucky that the spot is in the shade.

I put on my hiking boots and socks, stuff our backpack with a bunch of water bottles and head on our way toward the entrance to the Kalalau trail along the Na Pali coast at 11:58am. The first bit of the trail is relatively easy. There are stones and logs creating stairways up and down the dips. The path is also easily wide enough for two people to pass each other. There are beautiful lookouts of the water at the ¼ mile checkpoint and the ½ mile checkpoint. Beautiful views of the Na Pali coast start after the 1 mile checkpoint. And soon the trail that was mostly uphill to this point, goes back downhill toward Hanakapi’ai Beach. Knowing that the Hanakapi’ai falls are high up on the mountain, I grumble about how it’s unfortunate we have to go down before we can go up again. Michael makes a joke about how the downward paths should just be turned into zip lines (at least I think he was joking).

The final bit to get to Hanakapi’ai Beach requires you to cross a stream. I attempted to stay dry, but my left foot fell into the water. Regardless, crossing that stream is beautiful. Pacific Ocean to your right, beautiful stream coming down the mountain to your left and a beautiful beach in front of you. There is a bunch of rocks you have to climb down to get to the beach. It’s a secluded beach and there were really only hikers present, some with kids where this was their final destination. To the left there’s a cave that some people were using to get out of the sun. We sat near it, drank some water, ate some bananas that I’d packed and relaxed for a few minutes. I was warned I would have plenty more streams to cross, but I still rung out my left sock. The squishy boot walk for 2 miles uphill through jungle terrain did not sound appealing.

We made the turn toward the Hanakapi’ai Falls Trail at the bathrooms. Right away there is a helicopter pad clearing. I made a joke to Michael that we better not see this in use. The path, if you want to call it a path, up to the falls is very unlike the Kalalau Trail. After a half mile in, it becomes narrow, covered in brush and wet. It’s a tough hike that requires balance and strength to get up some of the rocks. On many occasions we felt like the path ended and had to search around for the bright orange or pink markers on trees signifying where the trail leads. We passed maybe 6 groups of people on our hike up, so this wasn’t too popular of a trail in the afternoon.

The end of the trail was the hardest part. Everything is wet and muddy from the stream and we were careful to make sure we didn’t slip and fall down the 30 foot drop off the trail in most places. Hearing the loud crash of the waterfall gives you the motivation you need to get the rest of the way. Soon we were arriving at the pile of rocks surrounding the pool of the waterfall.

We navigated our way around them, feeling the mist from the water hitting our faces… Wow. It was so beautiful. Moss attached to the rock cliff around where the water came down 300’ into an aqua blue pond the size of 2 Olympic sized pools. There wasn’t anyone there at all. Just a few crane birds watching us closely. We could only hear the splashing of the water into the pond. It was so loud we could barely even hear each other. It was like heaven on earth.

I dove into the water from a stone. The feeling of the cool, fresh water against my hot skin and tired muscles was one of the very best feelings that I have felt in my entire life. I never wanted to leave. We swam for about an hour and no one else ever joined us. It was about 3:45pm and it was an estimated 2 hour hike back. We wanted to leave some wiggle room because we weren’t sure how slow we’d be moving.

Surprisingly, the cool water from the falls gave our muscles the jolt they needed. We kept a fairly brisk pace and made it back to the car in the 2 hour time. Whenever I started slowing down, Michael took the lead and was the pace. Then when he started slowing we switched again. We were a good team.

A few people had told us when we started out that the hike to the falls wasn’t worth it. We didn’t listen, obviously, and you shouldn’t either. It’s 100% worth it and an experience that will be a highlight of our trip.

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