Continued...
Po'o Kaeha - Kukui
On our first full day on Kauai we paid a visit to Waimea Canyon, known as
"The Grand Canyon of the Pacific." There are no summits with significant
prominence
(over 300ft) along Highway 550 that follows the canyon's western edge,
but we would have fun tagging a bunch of the minor named summits found on
the topo map and ListsOfJohn. Po'o Kaeha is the one peak with over 300ft of
prominence, but it is found near the bottom of the canyon, oddly. We had no
beta about it and were going into this one blindly. We descended
from , a 2,200-foot drop in
2.5mi that makes for a very . The trail was mostly dry
today and near the bottom. We got down to
at the edge of the in an hour and
a quarter. After
a short break we continued north on the trail for about half a mile until we
got our of Po'o Kaeha. It was terribly discouraging.
We had glimpsed it from the trail earlier, noting it was ringed with two
levels of cliffs, but hoped it would look better closer up. We were only 0.4mi
from it now, but it , not better. We decided to give it
up and in instead. We'll leave it to
someone else to do this one first. On our way out, we stopped briefly at
Wiliwili Camp to some whiskey that had been left by a
previous party - our way of fortifying for the big climb out. Once at the rim,
we paid a visit to the nearby highpoint named Kukui. Approaching from the
south where we found through the heavy forest cover,
we worked our way , taking 20min for the 1/4mi distance.
At we found a with some
out-of-season ripe fruit that we snacked on.
Ka'ana
From an informal along the highway south of
Ka'ana, one can follow of the canyon rim to this modest
summit, no bushwhacking required. A fall from the edge will likely not be
stopped, so we were very slow and cautious on this one. The summit has an
of the canyon, but not appreciably better than the
.
Halemanu
This summit has a federal , with a sign indicating
No Trespassing right from the highway. We walked up the spur road to
reach it, tentatively asking the guy we found inside the fenced property
if it was ok to walk the perimeter. He said yes, so we .
The highest point seems to be on the east side of the fence.
Pu'u o Kila - Pihea
Pu'u o Kila is found at the end of the road, overlooking
the on the Napali Coast to the northwest. The 1.1mi
leads along the crest to the northeast, ending atop
. I had done this at least once many years ago and found it
terribly muddy. It was
better today with a several days of little rain, but it was still a muddy
affair. We shared the trail with dozens of other parties, mostly families
with some members enjoying the mud, others less so. At the end of the trail
is to keep the hogs out of the adjacent Hono Onapali
Natural
Reserve Area. There are from Pihea, but the Pu'u o Kila
and the Kalalau Lookouts offer better vistas.
Pohakuwa'awa'a
We parked at a that shortly leads to
for the state park. We walked the perimeter fence
around the left side first, running into an impenatrable wall of brush. We then
went around the right side, climbing up into the jungle where the fence turns
sharply north. The going was moderately tough until we discovered an
higher on the ridgeline. This made the going very easy all
the way to the top where we found a signal just
south of the summit and nothing in particular at the actual highpoint which was
devoid of any views. We did find some small before
heading back down. We followed the trail further to see if it would take us back
to the nursery, but it seemed to just continue following the ridge, so
we backtracked to our , returning to the nursery and our
jeep.
Pu'u Hinahina
This turned out to be one of the better ones. at the highway
north of the summit is signed for No trespassing, but leads to a large
grass area, regularly mowed and maintained by the state of Hawaii,
purpose unknown. But the grass extends to the rim of the canyon where
some great views can be had. There is also a use trail that follows
along the rim, again with a dangerous drop-off, that can be followed
to with some of the best views of yet.
It was getting close to sunset and the colors were quite nice with a side view
of Waipoo Falls.
Pu'u Ka Pele
Our last summit features another telecom installation, this one a bit
old. from the southwest leads to a utility building, behind
which leads up the ridge to the summit. There is a survey
monument at the summit, a tad higher than .
of from this one, too.
Continued...