We set out this morning for Waimea Canyon and Koke’e State Parks, most of the way around the island from our timeshare. If we’d gone directly there, it would have taken two hours each way.
We’ve been listening to the Kauai Revealed Drive Tour as we drive; it provides interesting insights, stories, and lots of suggestions for detours for beaches, hikes, and other diversions. We accepted its suggestion of detouring to Wailua Falls, about 15 minutes off the highway.
It’s Kauai, so there were lots of chickens strutting around (apparently tourists feed them; we didn’t!).
Chickens don’t read signs.
We drove back to the highway and resumed our journey. We’d eaten at Japanese Grandmother’s Cafe in Hanapepe on our first trip to Kauai and really liked it, so we went there for lunch. It’s a much bigger operation now than it was in 2017, but the food was just OK this time; I don’t think we’ll return, though I wouldn’t mind seeing a Friday Art Night in Hanapepe.
From Hanapepe, we continued to Waimea and the road leading to the canyon. The drive guide suggested a stop at an “informal” lookout for a good view of the canyon and waterfall – it was right.
We proceeded up the road to the Pu’u Ka Pele lookout for a slightly different view (and better parking).
We also visited the Pu’u Hinahina Lookout and walked a short part of the Canyon Trail there, but I didn’t get any good photos. From there, we continued to the Koke’e Museum and walked the Nature Trail there; again, no photos.
We turned back after the museum and drove to the Waimea Canyon Lookout, which had terrific views of the canyon and waterfall.
There’s a sightseeing helicopter in the last photo – can you find it?
We left the lookout and drove back to the resort, stopping in Kapa’a for falafel at Shakalafel.
The whole trip took about 9 hours; I’m exhausted!