The road up the Canyon is called Koke'e Road. Beware, this road is full of potholes for a few miles. Also, there is no gas on this road so fill up before you head up.
We hiked the longest trail in Koke'e State Park, which afforded us breathtaking views of the Napali Coast. It also shed light on why Mark Twain dubbed Waimea Canyon, the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific".
The trail is called the Awa'awapuhi - Nu'alolo Loop. It's an 11-mile strenuous hike. We started at the Awa'awapuhi trailhead, located near mile marker 17 on Koke'e Road. We walked about one and one-half miles down to the Nu'alolo trailhead because we wanted to end the hike where we parked our car. The start of the Nu'alolo Trail is tricky because there are 3 paths that look like they could be the start of it. The start is to the left as you pass the trailhead sign. Don't be tricked by the 2 fake paths that you might see straight ahead of you. There is a small trail sign in the tall grass if you look for it.
This first segment of the Loop trail is about 4 miles, which includes a one-half mile segment that leads to the Lolo Vista lookout. It has many steep downhills. (Like the song says, "What goes up must come down"). There are some tricky parts of this trail: felled trees within the first couple of miles that block the trail and what looks like another trail to the right before you reach the high red wall part of the trail. There are virtually no trail markers on the trail.
As this trail opens up to views of the cliffs and ocean, it just keeps getting better and better. Just when you think one view is awesome, you see something more awesome. The view from the Lolo Vista lookout is unbelievable.
The Nu'alolo Cliff Trail links the 2 main trails. It's not called the Cliff Trail for nothing. This 2-mile, relatively level portion of the trail includes washed out areas along the cliff that give you little room to walk on. If you slip, you're falling over a thousand feet straight down. This sign warns of the danger. Fortunately, there are some tree roots and pointy rocks to hold onto. I wouldn't be surprised if this part of the trail isn't open in the coming years as it continues to erode.
There are other areas on this trail that are washed out but are in the forested section. Somehow the danger doesn't seem as serious when you can't see where you'd fall.
You're likely to see goats navigating the steep terrain. They're amazing!
The Cliff Trail then links with the Awa'awapuhi Trail. This is a 3-mile strenuous hike, virtually uphill all the way, 1600 feet up. This trail goes through the woods. However, there is a lookout at the end of the trail, which if you choose to hike to it, adds about one-half mile to your trek. If you've come all this way, it's worth it for the view.
This is an awesome hike but don't underestimate the difficulty of it. I wouldn't recommend starting this hike after 10:30 a.m. Bring enough food and water to last a whole day. Leave some extra time to rest and enjoy the views.
Note: The scariest part of this trail for me wasn't the Cliff Trail. It was when Rex twisted his ankle. Some of you might know that when were in Hawaii 10 years ago, we couldn't hike because Rex sprained his ankle 2 days into the trip. We planned to make up for it this time and this hike certainly did. As you can see, Rex was having a great time (and his ankle was fine).
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