Na Pali Coast and the Kalalau Trail

The Na Pali valleys are not empty wilderness in the way they can look from a tour boat. Native Hawaiians lived in these hanging valleys for centuries, terracing the slopes to grow kalo, or taro, in irrigated loi, and fishing the waters below. Kalalau, Nualolo, and Miloli'i valleys held settled communities connected by trail and canoe, and stone wall terraces, house platforms, and heiau remain in the valleys today as evidence of that life.

The name Na Pali means the cliffs. Families farmed and fished here into the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and Kalalau in particular was worked for its taro long after most other valleys had emptied. The archaeological sites in these valleys are protected and sacred to Native Hawaiians, and hikers are asked to leave stone structures, terraces, and any cultural features exactly as they find them.

The modern Kalalau Trail largely follows older Hawaiian routes between the valleys. It was improved in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the coast has drawn a long line of hikers, wanderers, and those seeking solitude ever since, which is part of why the permit and reservation systems exist today.

Kauai is the oldest of the main Hawaiian islands, roughly five million years old, and Na Pali shows what time does to a volcano. The island was built by lava from a shield volcano, and once the eruptions stopped, water went to work. Kauai's interior, around Mount Waialeale, is among the wettest places on earth, and all that rain pours off the high ground toward the sea.

The sharp vertical flutes that make the cliffs so distinctive are the work of countless small streams cutting parallel grooves down the soft volcanic rock, while the ocean undercuts the base and whole sections collapse into the sea. The result is a coastline of knife-edge ridges, amphitheater valleys, sea caves, and arches that no road could ever cross, which is exactly why none does.

The most-walked stretch is the two miles to Hanakapiai Beach. The first mile climbs to a viewpoint where the coast reveals itself, then descends toward the stream and beach. In summer Hanakapiai has a sandy beach, but in winter the sand strips away to boulders, and in every season the water here is deadly. A hand-painted sign near the beach tallies the many people lost to the surf and rip currents, and the warning is not decorative.

From the beach, a rough two-mile side trail climbs inland to Hanakapiai Falls, a tall ribbon of water dropping into a pool in a green box canyon. The round trip to the falls turns the day into a serious eight-mile outing over slick, rooted ground with multiple stream crossings, and the streams can rise fast and dangerously after rain upslope even when it is dry at the coast.

The waters off Na Pali are alive. Spinner dolphins travel the coast in pods and are known for leaping and spinning clear of the water, and Hawaiian green sea turtles, the honu, feed and surface along the shore. In winter, roughly December through April, humpback whales fill the channel, having traveled thousands of miles from Alaska to breed and calve in Hawaiian waters, and their spouts and breaches are often visible from the trail.

Overhead, white tropicbirds with long streaming tail feathers ride the updrafts against the cliffs, and seabirds nest in the folds of the rock. The endangered Hawaiian monk seal, one of the rarest seals on earth, sometimes hauls out to rest on the beaches, and when one does it is roped off and must be left completely undisturbed.

Summer, roughly May through September, brings calmer north-shore seas, more settled weather, and the return of sand to Hanakapiai. It is the more forgiving time to hike, though the trail can still be muddy and the sun strong.

Winter, roughly October through April, is the north shore's wet and high-surf season. Big swells pound the coast, streams run high, and the trail can be slick and dangerous, but it is also whale season and the waterfalls run their fullest. In any season, weather here can turn quickly, and a dry morning can become a downpour by afternoon.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.