A Hiking We Did Go!

We decided to throw on our hiking sandals yesterday and hike the Kalalau Trail. The trail starts where the road ends on the very north part of the island. We were lucky that we started early in the morning when the vast majority of the trail was still in the shade. As we were hiking out, there were people hiking it - we thought they were nuts! The trail has ocean views the entire way and they were gorgeous. All together the trail is 11 miles long but to hike the entire length takes a couple days and you need a camping permit. Two miles into the trails, there is a two mile side trail back to a waterfall that you can swim under. That was our intent but by a mile and a half in, we could feel a couple blisters starting and the the trail went from shade to sun. So all together we hiked about 3 miles. The first half mile was by far the worst. It was pretty much straight up hill. Woo...it was quite a workout! Before we reached the half mile marker, Ryan and I were discussing that we had at have been 'almost a mile in by now.' Haha. it was kind of a let down to see the 1/2 mile marker sign after that.

View of Ke'e Beach where the trail started.

Stopping to take a little break.

Looking up towards the top of the mountain.

Reaching the 1/2 mile marker.

View of the Na'pali coast.

Proof that we made it to the 1 mile mark.

This is where we decided to turn around. We were pretty happy with the postcard-like views :)

Starting the hike back.

One of the many, many whales we saw. Unfortunately I didn't catch any coming out of the water and making huge splashes.

Another view of Ke'e Beach.

I know this doesn't look impressive but the whale watching was fantastic!

Here is part of the trail in the first half mile.

This kind of looks like it could be going down hill but really it is a view up the trail.

Ryan giving the trail some perspective.

We were so tired by the time we finished hiking. We got back to the condo and Ryan took a nap almost instantly - ha! We spent the rest of the afternoon at the resort pool - reading, sleeping and relaxing. It felt so good to soak in the hot tub...our muscles were thanking us :)

We decided to head into Hanalei for dinner.

I enjoyed a Mai Tai {although it looks kind of gross, I should have taken a picture prior to mixing it up}.

After dinner we came home and once again promptly crashed :) {Crashing every night seems to be the theme around these parts}

~Ashley