The Brookston Family Blog
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The payoff for hiking to miles on the Kalalau Trail is Hanakapi’ai Beach, a small but stunningly beautiful beach along the Na Pali Coast.

This colorful warning greets tired hikers at the entrance to the beach.

After walking in to the mouth of the stream, Sarah rests on a rock.

Where this majestic rock keeps watch over the beach.

When she was rested, Sarah walked toward the beach itself.

The stream hooked right and cut a path through the beach before emptying into the ocean.

Which was shallow enough to wade through.

Hanakapi’ai Beach on the Na Pali Coast.

A red-crested cardinal on the beach.

We headed left to find a secluded spot or our picnic lunch.

Behind us lay only jungle.

We found a quiet group of black rocks for our picnic.

Where we rested from the morning’s hike.

With this giant black boulder for a view.

Me and Sarah on Hanakapi’ai Beach

Sarah and I both got new shoes for our trip and they were absolutely perfect. I wasn’t going to get any new shoes, and in fact at first I thought them ugly. Plus, I never, ever where anything even like sandals so they held no appeal for me. But once I saw them at REI and tried them on, I was hooked. And my new Keens have proven wonderful for all sorts of things. They’re cool, waterproof and quite possibly the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever worn, especially without socks. They were great in Hawaii because they weren’t too hot, we could walk through streams and into the ocean without worrying about getting them wet and we didn’t have to pack socks which made it easier for us to pack light. Get yourself a pair today.

The popular Keen Newports are the ones we wore on all our hikes on Kauai.

The second leg of our hike along the Na Pali Coast was mostly downhill toward a secluded beach that can only be reached via this trail, Hanakapi’ai Beach. The total distance to the beach is two miles but is beautiful almost every step of the way. From this point on, many of the people we passed coming in the other direction told us they had not made it to the beach because the trail was too muddy further on. Frankly, once we reached the point they must have talking about, I’d say they were nuts. Exercising a little caution goes a long way.

Sarah at another summit, with Hanakapi’ai Beach far below in the distance.

A small stream we crossed on the way.

Where butterflies flitted about the jungle flowers.

Sarah stuck briefly in the mud.

Hanakapi’ai Beach as we drew closer.

And closer still.

As the final descent begins, the first warning appears.

At the end of the trail, a larger stream empties into the Na Pali Coast.

Where Sarah sat down to clean out the mud from her feet and shoes.

The stream emptied into Hanakapi’ai Beach.

The island of Kauai is almost a perfect circle, as islands go, and you can drive almost completely around it. What keeps you from being able to circumnavigate the island in your car is an 11-mile stretch on the western end known as the Na Pali Coast. The Na Pali Coast can only be reached by hiking into it. It’s bordered on the north by Kee Beach, the second most remote beach on Kauai. The Kalalau Trail is the only way to see the Na Pali Coast, apart from by boat (which we did during our last trip to Kauai five years ago).

The trailhead next to Kee Beach.

Sarah begins the rugged hike.

Kee Beach, looking back from our first vantage point.

Me on the jungle trail.

The view ahead.

And behind and below us.

Sarah nears the top.

The Na Pali Coast.

Sarah at the one of the summits, with the Pacific Ocean behind her.

Regular readers may recall the story of Jason “J-Mac” McElwain, the autistic high school senior from Rochester, New York, who scored 20 minutes in the final four minutes of his team’s last game. He had been the team manager and for his final game the coach told him to suit up and then played him in the waning minutes of the game.

Sunday night he was again a winner as J-Mac was on hand with his family to pick up an ESPY, the ESPN awards, for “Best Moment” beating out his idol, rapist Kobe Bryant, along with “George Mason University’s NCAA Final Four run and 13-year-old Dakoda Dowd’s LPGA appearance for her mother, who has terminal bone cancer.” The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle carried a story about it and Wayne Drehs of ESPN had a nice column from June about the story’s impact. Rumors abound that a film or at least TV-movie of J-Mac’s story is in the works.

After the big game, J-Mac on his teammates shoulders.