Waimea Canyon

Today is Mom's 92nd birthday. The greetings began at 3:50AM--someone who forgot the time in Hawaii is different. Mom had her hearing aids out and didn't hear. I did. And the beep from the phone every few minutes to tell her she had a voice message. Until she got up at 5 for the bathroom. I got her to turn off her phone at that point. She went back to sleep, but I didn't. So I took in another glorious sunrise over the Pacific.

Today we drove west from Lihu'e to Waimea and then up the Waimea Canyon. Except that we missed the first road 550. I have not been impressed with Hawaiian signage for places not on the main road. There was a sign for 550, but nothing that said that was the way to the canyon. Just outside of town there was a sign for the canyon following 552, no doubt an alternate route. The concierge at our the Kaua'i Beach Resort had said, "The Waimea Canyon is just like the Grand Canyon only smaller." As we drove up 552, we were thinking, this lady has neve been to Arizona. All there was was scrappy eroded slopes on either side. My comparison of the North Shore of Kaua'i and the North Shore of Lake Superior was a lot more apt than comparing this to the Grand Canyon.

Then we reached the junction with 550. Oh. This is what she was talking about. The shape of the cliffs was indeed reminiscent of Grand Canyon pictures. (I myself have never been to that part of Arizona. Still on my bucket list.) But this is way greener than Arizona.

There was a long ramp with hairpin turns to get Mom up to the viewing platform. I offered to push her sitting on her walker, but she made it on her own. At another viewing point further up, she found a place to put her feet up while I explored.

Several hiking trails take off from this area. I hauled my hiking boots along hoping for something, and had them in the car. Of course, as soon as I laced them on, it started to rain. Mt. Wai'ale'ale just to the east gets more than 452 inches of rain per year--one of the wettest place on earth--so I guess it's not surprising it might rain here. It was only mist so I started off anyway.

There was an odd smell, not exactly pleasant. Eventually I figured out that it was the intense smell of rotting fruit. These were growing all around me and falling under foot. Haven't yet figured out what they are.

But before long the trail plunged steeply downward. That meant the return would be steeply upward, and with the rain, quite muddy. So I turned back and left hiking in Hawaii for another time.

We drove up to Kaialau Lookout, hoping to see down one of the valleys we looked up from the boat on Monday. But it was completely clouded in. (Remember the clouds topping the peaks on Monday?) I guess you have to be there before 9 AM to get the view. Next time. We were right by the NASA station we had seen from the sea on Monday.

No point in going on to the lookout at Pu'u e Kila, so we turned back. This time we took 550 back to Waimea and stopped at several overlooks, none as spectacular as the main one.

This waterfall was interesting. The whole area was totally exposed red rock. I can imagine that in rain, the whole hillside is a waterfall.

We looked for a picnic spot in Waimea where the sand is black, but this side of the island is not the rich playground of the west and north coasts. The houses are simpler, yards junkier, and the park we found had a broken picnic table and lots of litter, so we decided to move on.

We stopped instead at the Salt Pond Beach Park near Hanapepe. Again we were driving through ordinary neighborhoods. The salt pond itself was rather dried up and mucky, smelling of fish, but the park stretched along the sea beyond the salt pond and was nice enough. There was a picnic shelter with a cement walkway from the handicapped parking spot, so it worked for us. Not too far away were a couple encampments of what I assume was homeless people. "Cousin Paul" in Honolulu said  a couple West Coast states got caught offering free one-way tickets to homeless people to a warmer place. It has become a major problem here. I saw pan handlers several times in Waikiki.

But it was raining, and we were glad for the shelter to eat our lunch. We had our crackers and cheese, plus croissants I had bought at the grocery this morning and a 10" plate of cut-up cantelope, watermelon and honeydew for $7, prepared at the local grocery. The smaller plates of fruit had more variety, but were $10.99 prepared off site. Mom ate from our fruit plate for breakfast; we ate our fill for lunch and have plenty left over for tomorrow.

As we drove back to the east side of the island, we left the clouds behind and had a beautiful afternoon at the resort.