Koke'e State Park
On
Kaua'i we stayed for four nights in a cabin at Koke'e State Park, the highest
accessible point of the island. The cabin had most of the amenities of a hotel
with two beds, a kitchen, a bathroom, running water and electricity. However,
the kitchen pipes were leaking and rotting a hole in the floor, the eating table
was broken, the outside light didn't work and the front door didn't lock properly.
The cabin next to us had been completely renovated and was very charming compared
to ours - so we recommend you splurge for one of those instead. We didn't need
an alarm to wake us up in the morning because we were serenaded by male red
junglefowl - a.k.a. roosters. Junglefowl seem to thrive at Koke'e Park, we found
them everywhere, even 3 miles back into the rainforest.
The great thing about staying at the park was being close to all of the hiking
trails. Our favourite hike was to the Na Pali Coast along the challenging 9
mile loop of the Nu'alolo/Nu'alolo Cliff/Awa'awapuhi trails. The most disappointing
hike was when we did the 5 mile Cliff/Canyon/Black Pipe trails. It was raining
the morning we started, so it was foggy and the path was very slippery. The
highlight of the hike was supposed to be the 800 ft Waipo'o Falls, made famous
in Fantasy Island, but the trail ended at the top of the falls and we
couldn't see anything. After three days of hiking, we ran out of energy and
time to take the 7.5 mile Alaka'i Swamp Trail which is known for it's endangered
birds. Instead we hiked to the Pu'u o Kila Lookout via the Kaluapuhi Trail,
a lesser birdwatching trail where we only saw one yellow honeycreeper.
Map References
- The state cabins are marked in the middle-left, just below the Park HQ,
Koke'e Lodge and the Museum.
- The loop trail leading to the Na Pali Coast starts beside the cabins at
mile marker 15.5, going left off the map for 9 miles, emerging at mile marker
17.
- The Cliff Trail, Canyon Trail and Black Pipe Trail lie at the bottom of
the map, with Waipo'o Falls in the middle of the bottom.
- The Kaluapuhi Trail and Pu'u o Kila lookout is in the middle of the top
part of the map.