View Kauai's spectacular Na Pali Coast from the ancient Kalalau Trail.

Waimea Canyon Explorer

Na Pali Hiking Adventure

Mahaulepu Coast Hike

Kauai's Mountain Forest

Beaches of Kauai Excursion

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Experience the Na Pali Coast and Learn about its Amazing History.

Once you have experienced Kauai’s Na Pali Coast you can never forget it. Literally meaning “The Cliffs”, Na Pali is synonymous with spectacular beauty. Precipitous black lava sea cliffs, locally weathered to rusty-red iron oxides and variably covered with vegetation displaying every imaginable shade of green, rise straight up more than 2000 feet above the turquoise ocean. Na Pali extends for 15 miles along Kauai’s north-facing coast and is cut by several large valleys that are accessible much of the year only on foot. Huge north shore waves that pound the coast during the island’s four or five winter months prohibit access by boat. The best way for you to experience this amazing setting is to hike the two miles into Na Pali’s first major valley, Hanakapiai. The coastal trail, commonly called the “Kalalau Trail” since it continues for 11 miles into Kalalau Valley, was originally built by the island’s early Polynesian inhabitants to gain access to the lush valleys during winter months. It was improved and extended in the late 1800s, and in the 1930s much of the first mile was paved with stone. The trail rises to 400 feet in the first mile to provide wonderful views back toward the coral/algal fringing reef at Kee Beach and down the coast to Kalalau Valley and beyond. It then drops into Hanakapiai Valley with it’s cascading, boulder strewn river and valley mouth beach that changes from white sand in the summer to nothing but lava boulders in the winter. As you view and feel all that Na Pali has to offer your guide will inform you of its geologic origins, show you the coast’s special native plants and fill your head with thoughts of its early Hawaiian inhabitants and their mythical stories of life in a very remote area of one of Earth’s most isolated islands.

Check us out in the National Geographic Adventure magazine (March/April 2000 issue) under Hawaii's Edgy Eden (pp. 104-113) SPECIFIC TOPICS DISCUSSED INCLUDE -Na Pali’s geologic origins and it’s long history of modification by weather and waves. - Climatic change along the coast, ranging from rain forests to near desert conditions. - Native plants - the story of their migration, evolutionary transformations and recent struggle with human introduced exotics. - Polynesian discovery of Kauai and occupation of Na Pali’s valleys by the island’s early Hawaiians. - History of cultural change, beginning with European contact in the late 1700s and extending up to the past few decades of adventure tourism. - The sad story of drownings at the island’s most deadly beach, Hanakapiai, and a brief history of Kauai’s water safety efforts.

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