This hike lived up to its advance billing. It features a fabulous array of Kaua'i microclimates and two quite different and stunning vista points with sweeping views of the Na Pali, especially to the northeast.

The vista from the Awa-'awapuhi Lookout is perhaps the most breathtaking of all Na Pali views, so sheer and deep a drop as to defy scale. My pictures were surprisingly ineffective at showing just how big the drop was until one of the tourist helicopters that I'd been cursing all day flew through the canyon over 1000' below us. Only in that photo do you get some sense of the scale.

The most treacherous sections are the spur out to the Lolo Vista Lookout (see map) and a recently slid-out section in the first half-mile of the Nu'alolo Cliffs trail where you have to hug crumbling rock on the uphill side as you ease around a sharp bend in the foot-wide trail. On the other side, the drop is over 2000 feet. I just didn't look that way.

It was August and the trails were dry. I can't imagine doing this trail after heavy rains, as we did the Phihea / Alaka'i / Kilohana lookout trail in November 2004. The downhill stretches of the Nu'alolo Trail would be a wicked slippery-slide and the cliff trail – well, I'd just say "no."

We saw only one person on the Nu'alolo trail and a handful on the Cliffs trail. Climbing out the Awa-'awapuhi trail we passed several dozen trying to (we assume) make the out-and-back to the Awa-'awapuhi point. We figure the ones we passed at 2 pm, near the head of the Awa-'awapuhi trail, walking in flip-flops, probably weren't going to make it.

Hike Photos

Comments on The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook©, 5th Ed. — pg. 143
The mileage measurements in the book agreed with Bill's GPS readings: 9.8 miles for the hike without the road section connecting your exit from Awa'awapuhi trail back to your car at the entrance to the Nu'alolo trail, 12.2 total. The book's description is quite accurate, but the map on page 145 is a bit confusing. However, the trail was well signed, so skip the book's map or better yet, use the excellent Earthwalk Press "Northwestern Kaua'i Recreation Map" available at the Koke'e Lodge.