Grand Canyon? When Did We Go Back To Arizona?

On Tuesday we took Tom and Debbie up to Waimea Canyon on the east side of the island.  They missed going there on their last trip to Kauai (18 years ago).  It's a 26 mile, very winding, road that goes from sea level to over 3500 feet.  But before we stopped at the canyon I had them go another10 miles to a place called the Kalalau lookout point.  Here you look down into the Kalalau Valley, the highest point of the Na Pali coast.  The Na Pali coast is an inaccessible coastline on the north of Kauai that you can only get to by hiking a steep 11 mile hike.  But Kalalau lookout is a lot like Mt. McKinley in Alaska.  It only shows itself once in a while and you have to be either lucky or patient.  So here is what Kalalau looks like -

And this is what we saw!  Last time I was up at the lookout we waited for about 20 minutes, the clouds cleared for about 5 minutes and I got to see the above picture - but not this time.  : (

After we waited for about 30 minutes it didn't look like  it was going to clear at all so we took off back down the hill to the Waimea Canyon.  When Mark Twain visited he called this canyon the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.   We timed it so that there was mostly sun shining in the canyon and all the colors popped.  Unlike the one in Arizona which is awash in browns and tans, this canyon is filled with greens, browns and tans.  It's 10 miles long, 1 mile wide and 3500 feet deep.  It was formed by the rivers and floods from Mt. Waialeale, which is the wettest place on earth (averaging 450 inches of rain per year).

Now that the sightseeing is over we will be at the resort just relaxing and letting the three of them snorkel to their hearts content in our little cove while I stay on the lanai and read.  Tomorrow we are off to lunch at Puka Dog (Google it).  Aloha, y'all.