My plane to Hawaii got in early, and my parents' plane was getting in late, so I had time to go for a hike. It's an hour's drive from Lihue to the Kukui Trail (the first good spot to hike into the canyon). Richard and I have hiked here before, but I wanted to go all the way down to the river.
Downhill was easy, although in retrospect, five hours on a plane followed by an hour of steep downhill was probably not the best idea for my calves.
I saw only one couple heading uphill as I was heading downhill. Other than that it was very quiet, even heading through the campground near the river.
It clearly hadn't rained much recently. Although I've never been to the canyon bottom before, I assume that the river flow is usually higher than this.
Some relative of the mangrove was making itself home on the cliffside via an unusual hovering arrangement.
Near the river, the forest is pretty thick, and the trail is indistinct. I had to keep my eye open for blazes (generally a clear strip of plastic [or perhaps a baggie] tied around a branch). At one point I startled a pair of goats, one tan and one black. It was difficult to get a good photo through the forest.
About halfway up, you leave the forest and start up a red-dirt ridge with sparse trees. Here, the views were made more varied by the spotty clouds.
Closer to the top, the trail falls off the top of the ridge and switchbacks up the side instead, thus generally hiding the views. At the very top is a nature loop that I figured my parents would enjoy doing later.
The hiking book says 2.5 miles to the river, with 2500 feet of elevation change. That's pretty steep. I went down in only an hour, then took about 2.5 hours to come back up.
