Want to get up, close and personal with Mother Nature? Grab a backpack and hit the trail. Want to experience natural wonders you’ve never seen before? Backpack the Kalalau Trail.
If you’re a backpacker at heart, then your list of backpacking trips isn’t complete until you’ve conquered the Kalalau Trail. Beginning where the paved road ends on Kauai’s North Shore, this 11-mile trail alternately challenges and rewards hikers with a breathtaking combination of cliffside promenades, deep forest, silent skies, stark cliffs and views of wild sea. When you reach the trail’s end, you’ll step onto a white sand beach stretching as long as several football fields lay end to end. It is here, at the end of your journey that you are left to meditate, enjoy the sheer beauty of the place and reflect on your own inestimably good fortune.
Most hikers claim Hanakapiai Beach as the end of their journey. Found two miles in to the trail, Hanakapiai can be considered a mere stopover for more resilient backpackers. A more complex and engaging symphony of jungle, sea and sky wait along the remaining nine miles of Kalalau Trail.
If you are...