September 17th

 Day 4 Hiking in Waimea

We are up at 5:00am and in the car by 5:45 to drive west and meet our guide for the morning. While there are many nice trails in the canyon I wanted something different and Eric has some trails he has cut himself so you are almost certain that you won't encounter another living soul on his trails.

We were on the trail by 6:45 and enjoying the cooler morning temperatures and the way the light reflects off the different colors of the canyon as the sun rises higher and higher into the sky.

  We spied some goats along the hillside on the opposite canyon wall but my zoom wasn't capable of making them look like anything other than Q-tips. This is such a pretty place and Eric is super knowledgeable about the history of the area. We walked along an irrigation canal dug by Philippine workers for sugar cane crops years ago. While we saw, and had to avoid stepping in same, evidence of horses using the same trail we didn't actually see them on this trip. Eric informed us that there is a family of horses that uses the trail most days.

the white patches are the buildings of a Taro farm on the opposite side of the river

After our time with Eric we continued up the canyon to the higher lookouts. We were going in and out of rain squalls but they were short and we were rewarded with some faint rainbows over the Kalalau valley lookout

there's a rainbow here, honest!!

same rainbow

We continued along the ridge line trail but due to some rain I had to put my camera under cover.We still enjoyed walking in the rain and we were treated to some great views from time to time.

There is so much to see here. Amazing views all around. Even some darn good looking Roosters!

it's a long way down, we are staying up here

waterfall way off in the distance

We had a quick lunch of turkey wraps I had made before we left and we bought some fresh fruit from a vendor at the lookout that was very tasty.
We decided to head down the mountain before the major traffic hit our sanctuary
We came down the far west side of the mountain and headed east towards Poipu.

We locked em up and turned into Kauai Cookie, went a little nuts buying treats. I love their Guava Macadamia nut cookies. But we bought so much more since they were liberal with the samples. Anyhow, stocked up with treats we headed home to get cleaned up as we were wet and muddy.

We got cleaned up and went down to the stream to watch the turtles some more.
There were more in this evening sleeping than we had seen the day before.

For dinner tonight we decided on keoki's. I know it's a little campy but I actually kind of like that about the place.
For Kauai we went for a late dinner at 8:30 so the place was not very busy and the band was still playing but only until 9:00pm. We ordered the mac nut crusted fish which was Ono and also an order of the Keoki's style fish. Both were good. W usually order two dishes and switch at the halfway point. In this case we both agreed that the mac nut crusted fish was a bit better, but both were very good.
We shared the big slice of hula pie to end our night and start the dream sequence.

Tomorrow is a doors off helicopter tour and dinner at Kauai Ono 560 so it will be our first venture north.