back to Hawaii 2009

Kaua'i, the Garden Isle

Hanalei Bay on the north shore of the island of Kaua'i 

Kaua'i  is one of the most beautiful places on planet Earth. This is coming from a hard-bitten cynical geologist who doesn't let such statements fall from his keyboard for just anywhere. It is one of those places that just causes your jaw to drop every time you turn another corner. And when you think you've seen the most beautiful place on the island, you find another a moment later. Like the other islands, it is a study in contrasts: the summit of Waialeale is the wettest place on the planet with an average yearly rainfall of 450 inches, while some parts of the south shore are near-deserts. Because of intense tropical weathering, the rocks on the island seem more colorful than those elsewhere. A unique turn of geology has caused the erosion of one of the deepest and most spectacular canyons in the Pacific region, Waimea. And giant mega-landslides off the northeast coast resulted in some of the precipitous cliffs found anywhere, the legendary Na Pali Coast. A high plateau, the Alakai, is a swampy wilderness that is the last stand of some of the rarest bird and insect species on the planet. And the beaches...there's just no place like this in the world.

Kaua'i is the oldest of the major Hawaiian Islands, having formed 5-6 million years ago. Unlike the other islands that we visited, it was a single volcanic edifice, although one with a complex history. The oldest exposed rocks are the members of the Waimea Volcanic Series, which is divided into the Napali and Olokele members (along with several others). The last time any eruptions occurred was perhaps 520,000 years ago with the last gasp of the rejuvenation stage of volcanism. Much of the eastern side of the island is composed of these younger flows, called the Koloa Volcanics.

We spent three days on the island, with a first day tour of the north side, a second day looking at the south and west sides along with Waimea Canyon, and a third day exploring one of the oddest localities in the Pacific Ocean, the Alaka'i Swamp, set at 4000 feet and reputed (without documentation) to be the highest swamp in the world. I'm skeptical of the claim, but I do know that it is one of the strangest places I have ever seen.

Exploring the North Shore         Our morning was spent loading 27 people and all their gear and luggage into 5 vehicles, and driving 20 miles to the airport where we unloaded 27 people and all their gear and luggage, and then we took the 5 vehicles to the rental return place, then we waited while the airline took the 27 people's gear and luggage and put it on a plane, which then flew us to Honolulu so we could catch a connecting flight to Kaua'i. They neglected to mention that our connecting flight was actually the plane we were on, but half the crew had disembarked, but we got them back and then flew to Kaua'i's airport at Lihue. We then sent the drivers to pick up the six cars at the off-site rental agency, which had a single person at the desk, so we waited and waited, and then we picked up the 27 people and put them and all their gear and luggage into the six cars (barely), and drove 10 miles or so to our hotel in Kapa'a, which was well-hidden, and then we offloaded 27 people with all their gear and luggage, and told them to get lunch and return in 45 minutes so we could get on the road and see some stuff. My lunch took an hour to be delivered. What did I learn? Moving 27 people from one island to another takes exactly 7 hours, of which 45 minutes is spent in the air.   At 2:30 in the afternoon we had everyone together again, and we set off for a tour of the northern shore of Kaua'i, the wet side. The highway swept past the Anahola Mountains, composed of deeply eroded Waimea Canyon Basalts (the Napali Member). The outline of the mountain is striking; if it seems vaguely familiar, the prominent peak to the right was the mountain seen in the opening moments of Raiders of the Lost Ark.  I have a confession to make...no one who actually knows me will believe it, but...I left my camera in the hotel when we left for the afternoon! Most of these pictures are courtesy of Susan Hayes, or at least her camera (I kinda grabbed it and snapped a few pictures out of sheer frustration). The north shore is the verdant one, with vast amounts of rainfall. Greenery was everywhere, even hanging over the road. Another turn in the road brought us to a famous point overlooking the taro fields of Hanalei Valley. The valley has eroded along the border between the older Waimea Canyon Basalt (right) and the younger Koloa Volcanics (on the left). Taro was a staple food brought to the islands by the colonizing Polynesians, and is still utilized on the islands in numerous ways. The fields here may look familiar to moviegoers; it stood in for Vietnam rice paddies in the movie Uncommon Valor (in case you haven't noticed, I pay close attention to movies and their geological settings). Looking more to the southwest from the overlook, I realized we were seeing a somewhat uncharacteristic sunny day on this most rainy side of the island. We are looking at the deeply eroded Olokele Member of the Waimea Canyon Basalts (3.95 million years) which underlie much of the highest parts of the island. The wettest place on the planet is tucked up there among the clouds. Mt. Waialeale gets 450 inches of rain a year.    We wanted to talk about coral reefs and the Hawaiian Islands, and we stopped at Lumaha'i Beach for no other reason than it was uncrowded, shaded, and full of sand derived from the offshore reefs. We couldn't see the reefs themselves, but they have a powerful influence on the coastlines of the islands. When present, they take the brunt of the wave energy, and form quiet inshore areas. As the islands sink and erode away, the reefs often become the sole reminder than an island ever existed, since coral can grow upwards at a faster rate than the island can sink. Atolls are of ancient Hawaiian Islands can be followed for hundreds of miles northwest beyond Kaua'i.   Wave erosion is a pervasive part of the north shore environment. At Ha'ena State Beach there is a remarkable alcove, the Maniniholo Dry Cave across the road, leading deep into the steep cliffs. It was cut entirely by wave action when the sandy beach was far narrower.  Given a choice, what would the students do with a few moments of free time? Look at the stunning cliffs? Explore the reef and beach? Explore the Dry Cave? Heck no! There was a shave ice truck! A mile down the road was a second wave cut cave, the Waikanaola Wet Cave. The floor of the cave extends below the local ground water table, and is big enough to swim in. Approaching the end of the highway, one began to realize how little horizontal land was left. Sheer cliffs rose  thousands of feet. These are some of the excellent exposures of the Na Pali Member of the Waimea Canyon Basalt. Not that one person in a hundred would ever notice it with all the cliffs and beaches to look at, but there was an exposure close to the road that revealed some of the feeder dikes that fed basalt eruptions four million years ago. These are also part of the Na Pali member. The road ends at Ke'e Beach. This beautiful shaded strip of sand is partly protected by reefs, whose locations are indicated by the waves breaking far from the beach in the distance. One might wonder why a relatively small island like Kaua'i is not circumnavigated by pavement. Looking around at Ke'e, the reason is obvious....   Ke'e is the east end of the Na Pali Coast, one of the most spectacular landscapes on the planet. Rising as high as 4,000 feet, the cliffs are the result of one of the stupendous slope failures that produced monster tsunamis and left a string of debris for many tens of miles along the seafloor. No road could ever be, or should ever be, engineered across this incredible place. There is a rugged trail that winds for eleven miles to the Kalalau Valley. Some of our students ventured out along the first two miles of the trail, and I hope to have some photos soon to add to this space (hint, hint, everyone!). While we await some submissions from the hikers, enjoy this photo from the deck of a boat from my trip in 2006. The Na Pali is a beautiful and dramatic place!   We drove back to our hotel in Kapa'a with another unique Hawaiian sunset!

Waimea Canyon and the "No Pali" (they call it Na Pali on a clear day)       The new day would include an exploration of the south and western parts of the island, including the ultimate destination for the geologically inclined: Waimea Canyon. Our adventures started on a side road right behind our hotel, a visit to Opaeka'a Falls. They fall over a ledge of Koloa Basalts, which formed during the rejuvenation stage of volcanism. The pretty falls have formed a backdrop for a number of movies, including the critical hit "Robinson Crusoe, USN" with Dick Van Dyke (one of my childhood favorites)/ One minor problem of running a geology course in Hawaii is that my favorite question at every stop of any trip is "what kind of rock is this?"  In Hawaii, the answer is almost always 'basalt'. Our next stop of the day was along the Poipu Coastline, and for once, the answer was something different! During the ice ages, sea level was lower, and a wide beach of coral sand developed. Onshore winds blew the sand into dunes, which lithified, or hardened, into a limey sandstone. Waves beat against the former dunes, forming these scenic cliffs.  How refreshing to see some sedimentary rocks in this very igneous environment! The apparent tilting of the layers results from the preservation of the slopes of the dunes; it is called crossbedding. Chemical weathering of the sands results in all manner of pinnacles and needles; not the most comfortable beach to sit or lay on...   It was there on the Poipu Coast, it was a tourist trap par excellence, but it WAS geological, so we stopped to have a look at the Spouting Horn. Wave erosion exposed a portion of a lava tube with a small hole in the ceiling. Whenever waves rush into the tube, water gushes out the opening like a geyser. It is kind of neat, especially with big waves pounding, but there is a hole nearby that used to make a much, much bigger geyser, as high as 200 feet at times. Unfortunately, the salt spray was stunting growth of some of the sugar cane growing nearby, so someone blew up the hole in the 1920's. We bravely worked our way past the hawkers and sellers of merchandise at the overlook and headed up the road to Waimea Canyon. By Hawai'i standards, the Kaua'i volcano is ancient, at 5-6 million years. It has been geologically extinct for at least 500,000 years, and in the tropical environment it has been deeply eroded and numerous canyons radiate away from the summit region of the former shield. They are deep and beautiful, but there was a geological hiccup in the formation of canyons on the west side of the island that led to something different from any other Hawaiian canyon...much of the original shield (made of the Na Pali Basalts) broke apart and slid to the east as a series of massive fault blocks. One high ridge remained on the west side of the broken volcano. Eruptions began to build another shield over the fault blocks (the Olokele member), but they never quite built up to the level of the western ridge. Consequently, rivers and streams that would have drained in a radial pattern from the summit of the volcano were diverted against the fault block where they carved a deep and intricate gorge that is unusually long and deep: Waimea Canyon, the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific". We are looking at the lower reaches in this photo. We drove up several miles and several thousand feet to the Waimea Canyon Overlook. What a stunning place! Relating it to the Grand Canyon is probably unfair, for it stands on its own as a geological wonderland. It is close to 3,000 feet deep in places, and the tropical weathering has given us a natural palette of black, red, lavender and brown, contrasted against the greens of the trees and shrubs that cling to the steep slopes.   One interesting connection between Waimea River and the Colorado River; in their respective languages they both mean Red River.    Every direction provides a different perspective, different shades. Along with the incredible scenery is the knowledge that this is a special wilderness as well. The upper reaches of the canyon lead into the Alaka'i Swamp, which is the last refuge for some of the rarest birds on the planet.   Things kind of started falling apart after this wonderful moment. We had an injury, and the other incredible sight of the day (the Na Pali Overlook, 4,000 feet down to the sea) was a No Pali, as it was socked in by impenetrable clouds. Some of us headed down the mountain for medical assistance, others needed to get to lower elevations, and a few stayed to hike to a waterfall at the head of the canyon. Here is a perspective over lower Waimea Canyon, and the adjacent Olokele Canyon, towards Waialeale, the wettest spot on the planet (as mentioned previously). Some of the crew was able to take a hike to the top of Waipo'o Falls at the head of Waimea Canyon, and Noel was kind enough to provide some very nice shots of the view looking downstream towards the sea.   The folks in the photo are sitting at the top of 800 foot Waipo'o Falls. What a view! That's a natural arch on the left ridgeline.

Hiking into the Alaka'i Swamp       Our last full day on the island of Kaua'i involved a few morning stops, followed by an adventure hike into one of the strangest wilderness areas in the United States, the Alaka'i Swamp. First stop of the day was a very old archaeological site near Lihue, 'Alekoko, the Menehune Fish Pond. It was built by the first Hawaiians, the Menehune, to grow fish. Now overgrown with the tropical vegetation, it was an ideal place to film some of the early scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Remember when Indiana Jones was being chased by indigenous South Americans? They were actually Hawaiians, and Jones jumped into the fish pond to escape. The seaplane took off from the adjacent Hule'ia River. Our next stop was the beautiful paired Wailua Falls. The water is going over an unusually thick basalt flow. The rock beneath the ledge is made of ash and pillow basalts that are easier to erode. As the rock is worn away, it undercuts the ledge and chunks fall off, maintaining the falls, but causing them to gradually work their way upstream. The lava flows are the younger Koloa Basalts. The hill in the distance is an eroded outlier of the older Na Pali Basalts.   If the falls seem vaguely familiar, it may be because they were part of the opening of "Fantasy Island" (Da plane! Da Plane!). On a much more serious note, this area was sacred to the original Kauaiians. It was part of pathway used by royalty when they made a yearly pilgrimage to the summit of Waialeale. Heaius and temples are found throughout the area. Downstream are birthing stones where children of royals were born.  Then it was one more try for the view down the cliffs of the Na Pali Coast. The clouds teased us for a few moments, but it was no dice, we just weren't going to see the view this trip. . We were really headed someplace else this day, a place unlike any other I have seen in my life: the Alaka'i Swamp. We started down the Pihea trail, which wandered along the cliff top, with the invisible Na Pali on the left, and the 'ohia rainforest and Alaka'i plateau on our right. The trail description was sort of deceptive. They said it was strenuous, but mostly talked about a boardwalk. They didn't mention this kind of thing! This would have been really tough in the rain, but we seemed to have hit a dry spell.   There's the boardwalk! They constructed the boardwalk in the 1990's so people wouldn't sink away in the mud, and to preserve the trail. It used to be a real challenge to get around in this region. The boards and wire mesh made a very distinctive sound as I strode down the trail, and I am hearing even as I write this a month later! Some of the boards were rotting already, and so the wood dipped occasionally. It felt like I was hiking on a diving board.    The native birds of Hawai'i have a fascinating story. Just a handful of species ever made it across the oceans, but those that did found an island rich with food sources of all kinds. The finches and honeycreepers evolved into 50 different kinds of birds, but the colonization of the islands by humans has been devastating to them. The introduction of pigs and goats, mongooses, non-native birds, and worst of all mosquitoes (and the bird malaria that they carry) caused the extinction of most of them. The few species that are left can only survive in the cooler higher forests where the mosquitoes can't breed. The rainforests and swamps on the Alaka'i Plateau are one of the richest remaining environments where the native species still thrive, or at least survive.   I was hoping of course to see as many of the native birds as I could, and maybe photograph a few of them. I heard a great many, and could see many flitting through the forest at a distance, but only one of them was curious enough to check me out. It was an 'elepaio, a small insect eater. It is the guardian spirit for Hawaiian canoe-makers maybe for an interesting reason...the presence of lots of 'elepaios on a Koa tree indicated that the tree had lots of bugs and was therefore possibly diseased and not suitable for boat-making.     We hiked through a steep canyon in the rainforest and finally emerged onto the high plateau of the Alaka'i Swamp. Whatever you think a 'swamp' looks like, the Alaka'i is probably nothing like it. This high plateau (4,000 feet) gets hundreds of inches of rain every year. There is so much water that even water-loving plants have a tough time. There are few trees, and they don't get much over 5 feet tall. Rock is non-existent. It weathers quickly in this environment to clay. Clay plus water equals mud. Lots and lots of mud all over the place. There is a reason that roads do not circumnavigate the island, and it is right here. The mud made construction impossible. There are places that could actually swallow up heavy equipment.  Stepping off the trail could mean losing your shoes in waist deep muck. Some animals do fine here; we saw the tracks of Nenes in some of the mudflats. A Nene is what you get if you have a Canadian Goose land on the island a few hundred thousand, maybe even a few million years ago. They became far less aquatic, living often on barren lava flows, to the extent that they lost a lot of the webbing on their feet (look closer at the tracks).  OK, I'm cheating a little bit here. I didn't see any Nenes on this particular trip (a singular point of frustration), but I did take this picture on a previous trip to Maui. You can see their kinship to the mainland geese. The Nene is the state bird of Hawaii, but they were nearly extinct 50 years ago because of  Mongoose predation and other factors. A captive breeding program was begun, and they have been reintroduced into a number of habitats on three islands. Because Kauai is mongoose-free, they are doing the best here. We continued hiking across the strange barren landscape. It was an unusually clear day and we could see several miles across the plateau towards Mt. Waialeale. Our goal was to reach the far side of the plateau for a look down onto the north shore of Kaua'i from several thousand feet above. Would it be as cloudy as the Na Pali? We reached Kilohana Lookout, and were pleased to find the view mostly unobstructed by clouds, although they were building up rapidly (to the dismay of some of the later hikers in our group). Hanalei Bay and the Princeville peninsula were about five miles away, and 4,000 feet below our feet. It was a stunning view. Below our feet (literally below; it was a very steep drop-off) was the deep gorge of the Wainiha River. On the way back up the trail, one was able to pay a bit more attention to the vegetation. The canopy tree of the forest is one of the most unique trees on the islands, the Ohia Lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha). Endemic to Hawaii, it may be the most adaptable tree on the planet, growing at elevations from sea level to more than 8,000 feet, colonizing dry barren lava flows, and forming the canopy in high cold rainforests (and warmer lower ones). It also adds a splash of intense color to the forest, with bright red and sometimes yellow flowers. The trees range from shrubs (in the swamps and on lava flows), to large trees approaching 100 feet in height.  The flowers are mostly stamens, lacking petals. They are a critical food source for many of the native bird species, especially in the Alaka'i Swamp. The tree is also revered by the aboriginal people, who associate the tree with the goddess Pele and Laka, the hula goddess. After eight difficult miles of hiking, the end was in sight. As is usual with these trails, that gentle downhill slope at the beginning turned into a horrific steep climb at the end. Those little things at the top of the hill are people at the overlook. I gotta spend more time in the gym....   One of the nicest surprises in a day full of surprises came while we were driving down the mountain to the mouth of Waimea Canyon. Sitting right next to the road was a beautiful Pueo, the Short-Eared Owl, the only native species of owl on the islands (Barn Owls were introduced). It is an endangered species. It was kind enough to stay in place until I snapped a couple of photographs.