Kalalau Now.com

Confessions of a Kalalau Outlaw
(This is the beginning of a longer detailed account of a hiker who hung out
for longer than most in Kalalau Valley. The valley is a State Park. Its use
is regulated by the state, so this fellow was a bit a of a renegade. A link to the story in its entirety is at the bottom of this excerpt.)

I started up Kauai, Hawaii’s 11-mile Na Pali Coast trail at the crack of noon. The plan had been to get an early start—I’d spent the previous night at Haena Campground, a mile from the trailhead on Kauai’s north shore, to make that goal easily attainable. But it had stormed all night, keeping me awake in my slightly leaky tent, and I’d reasoned that getting a few extra hours of shut-eye was more important than sticking to the principle of an early start. I’d hiked the trail a half-dozen times before, and so knew that I had some flexibility in terms of camping for the night, if it appeared I wasn’t going to make it to the Kalalau Campground, at the end of the trail, as intended.

The Na Pali Coast or Kalalau trail is neither a walk in the park, nor a stroll on the beach. In fact, the only beach you see along the way is small but picturesque Hanakapeii Beach, nestled in a valley two miles in. The rest is rocky coastline. The only reason there is a trail here at all is because the pali (cliffs in native Hawaiian) were too unyielding to build a connecting road along this 15-mile section of coastline. And even the trail itself comes to a screeching halt at a series of sheer, dramatic, multi-colored ridges that jut out into the Pacific, forming a virtually impenetrable barrier to us two-legged types (the goats get around just fine).

Link to complete article