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Canyon Explorer |
Hiking Adventure |
Coast Hike |
Mountain Forest |
of Kauai Excursion |
The Mahaulepu shoreline along Kauai’s southeast coast, east of Poipu, is one of the island’s most beautiful. Owing to its present relatively low level of urbanization, it is also one of the island’s most “natural”, even though it is easily accessible. Without question the shoreline’s uniqueness is due mainly to the presence of spectacular limestone ledges that represent a complex of ancient lithified coastal sand dunes. The dunes provide a geologic record of several major sea level changes over the past 500,000 years of the Pleistocene Epoch. In many places ancient soil horizons associated with the sand dunes contain abundant fossil land snails and the bones of extinct flightless birds and large land crabs. The shoreline also displays a lush native coastal vegetation well adapted to the relatively harsh coastal environment. Another highlight is a large sinkhole in the limestone. A current fascinating paleoecological study of the sedimentary record of the sinkhole over the past 10,000 years is revealing secrets of the nature of the island’s coastal plants and animals just before and just after humans arrived on the island some 2000 years ago. Finally, a rich oral history of the past few hundred years has provided us with plenty of interesting stories of life and death along this amazing coastal area. |
 Interpret the ancient lithified sand dunes of Kauai’s scenic South Shore.
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INFORMATION |
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LOCAL: 808-742-8305 |