Waimea Canyon

Saturday, September 20, 2025

Waimea Canyon is known as The Grand Canyon of the Pacific. 

Today we did an audio driving tour of Waimea Canyon and Napali Coastline. I downloaded an app called Shaka Guide, it directed and narrated as I drove along. It was a pretty good guide and gave good directions and interesting information.  However, even with a last minute update to the app, it did not know about a couple of closures. A state park, and a couple of scenic overlooks were closed.  But, overall, I thought it was a good way to tour the canyon. I think it cost about $20.

First stop was the Kauai Coffee Company.  This company produces the most Coffee in the USA. They currently have 4 million coffee trees.

Then we headed on up into the Waimea Canyon. We stopped at several pull outs to take pictures... it got prettier as we went! 

Here is where we went in search of the Red Sand Falls... it was apparently dried up even though the audio guide said it flows year round (failure #2 of about 4, first was the closed state park)! 

More amazing views of the canyon...

There were lots of pretty flowers (for September).

There are plenty of hiking trails in the canyon.

The Kalalau Lookout was the end of the road for us... the rest was closed.  This provided a beautiful view of the Napali Coastline, which is known for its cliffs, caves and white sands. 

The audio guide told us the road was closed and that we could walk on the road... but it was roped off with a sign that said no hiking!  Apparently people have been following the guide! We did not.

We hiked a little bit on our way back. We stopped at the place where the Minehene people had dug an irrigation ditch by hand many years ago. 

The ditch was by the rock wall.  I didn't get a good picture.  It took water from the river that came from the canyon. 

We found dinner at a Ramen noodle restaurant then headed back to the hotel in the rain. 

The audio guide told us that the reason there are so many chickens in the island running around (and they are everywhere! ) is because of the hurricane that hit in 1992. The farms and homes were destroyed and the chickens got loose.  There is no predator so they continue to grow in population.