Our last day, a laid back day for relaxing. Breakfast was cornbread, sweet potato hash with egg. We lounged around in the morning watching the rains blow through leaving beautiful rainbows. Around noon, we finally figured out where to go and attempted to find the “secret” beach. The road goes out from the stables near Poipu and down a dirt and rocky road to the Malauwahi cave trail. The cave is actually a preserved historical cave and sinkhole where 7000 years of sediment and fossils have been found. From there, Ha’ula Beach is a quiet rarely visited beautiful beach and we enjoy the sand and warm clear blue water.
Dinner, after much deliberation was at Eating House 1849, a Hawaiian fusion restaurant where I had misoyaki black cod “butterfish” and Ray had short ribs. The local shrimp was delicious as well.
There was another couple as guests today and so breakfast had more options. The Mediterranean Shakshuka was delicious and more to my taste-light and flavorful. We have reservations for the shuttle at Wapai to go out to Ke’e Beach. There was a recent outbreak of norovirus on the backpacking trail and the trail to Ke’e Beach has been closed for disinfecting. Fortunately this week, part of the trail from Ha’en State Park to Hanakapi’aibeach is now open for day use, which we were happy about since the road was washed out in 2018 and we missed seeing the north shore.
The views of the Na Pali coast are beautiful along the trail but the trail is steep, slippery in many spots, and quite hot and humid. I have not sweat like that in a long time! Several times we contemplated turning back but made it out 4 miles to an overlook of the beach. I polled everyone coming down as to trail conditions, thinking I wouldn’t make it back safely!! Unfortunately we had dinner reservations and didn’t have time to get down to the beach, another 15 min climb downhill. We shuttled back in time to get to the farm.
Common Ground is a regenerative agriforest, serving dinners with everything sourced from the farm or within 10 miles. We had a local Hawaiian meal with breadfruit, soursop, sweet potatoes and vegetables, and rib eye butchered locally. It was fresh, light and delicious.
Breakfast of frittata was a bit rich for me and I am still pining for better!
We enjoyed the coolness of Waimea so much, we decided to hike the canyon again. Today we the Pihea Trail which starts at the Pu’u o Kila Lookout, hiked up and intended to join the Alaka’i swamp trail. However almost at the top, the trail got very rough and we decided it was wiser to turn back. Nevertheless we walked over 5 miles through beautiful native ‘ohi’a and fern filled rainforest with the mist billowing in and out. We had wonderful views of the Na Pali Coast from high above the cliff.
Parakeet Flower
Swiss cheese plant
On our way down, we stopped again for a few more papayas then visited the farmers market in Poipu. There were several farm tables selling the exact same fruits and vegetables at the same prices. They seem pretty competitive with eachother and most of them finished the evening with a lot left. It didn’t seem like a very productive afternoon for them. We noticed we had paid more for our papayas, dragon fruit and bananas, but our bananas were also much sweeter than at the inn. Merrimans was in the shopping center with fresh fish on the menu. We ordered 2 dishes and shared- fresh ono and local shrimp. and macadamia nut crusted mahi mahi. All was delicious.
I was missing Alexis’ breakfast today. The guest host, Molly cooks very American- heavy with cream and more of a “make it easy” large casseroles. Her egg casserole lacked sophistication and elegance. It was filling though and we didn’t need lunch.
Our last trip to Waimea Canyon was in 2018 after the huge floods and many of the trails were washed out or too slippery to hike. Our return trip gave us many options for hiking. We did the Canyon Trail, a steep down hill and up to a ridge overlooking the canyon. We hiked close to 6 miles and enjoyed the 10 degree cooler temperatures at 2500 ft elevation, compared to the 85 degrees in town.
On our way back, we were pleased to see the papaya orchard still in existence. An older Chinese man was at the fruit stand and we had a nice chat. He is from Fujian. We bought huge papayas, a green mango, dragon fruit, longan and apple bananas, the best bananas I have ever had. He even gave us a free bunch. Next we picked up our Lillikoi pie we had custom ordered for today. Full of our favorite dessert foods, we stopped for Thai food and enjoyed our dessert on the lanai.
There is something about Hawaii that brings a sense of calm and ease. We arrived in Kauai before noon and Marjorie’s Inn is exactly as we remembered. Mike told us they have a guest host as Alexis is on the mainland visiting grandchildren. They are thinking of selling the place and he is making some necessary repairs. Alas, nothing remains forever.
The weather is quite warm, upper 80’s and the sun is strong. We walk along the coast at Poipu and find a Thai restaurant for dinner. Roosters roam around everywhere and the sound of them crowing takes me back to prior trips in Hawaii.
On the road today to Steamboat Springs, Colorado where we will spend a day fishing. It is surprising to see that Northern Utah has some huge mining companies such as Rio Tinto digging into the hillsides, mining copper, aluminum and other minerals. The striated red rock reminds us of Dubois, the eastern Wind River Range in Wyoming and we discover we are actually on the south end of that range. North of Park City, an entire new resort with many ski runs is under construction.
After 800+ miles and too many hay fields, we are getting a bit punchy. Ray – “We should stop at one of these tractor stores and see what new tractors have. They must have all kinds of new lifts, forks…” Me – “Yeah, tell them you are Farmer Ray looking to upgrade your fleet of tractors to the latest technology.”
Rio Tinto Mining CoHave you ever seen such large bales of hay?! New ski resort under construction
How can we miss seeing the Dinosaur National Monument, only a 9 mile detour from the main road? The 5 min. shuttle takes us to the fossil quarry, now under cover in a two story building where one side is rock with bones still embedded. Paleontologists have unearthed over 400 dinosaurs, mostly stegosaurus and camarasaurus. It is amazing to see.
Stegasaurus bonesAllosaurus
The geology of the surrounding area is quite interesting, rock from many time periods and cliffs with sharp jagged rocks that resemble the back of a stegosaurus. Below winds the Green River.
The spine of the cliffs resembles a stegosaurus
The highway is as straight as an arrow and the scene reminds me of being in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania -mesas, low lying canyon walls and distant mountain ranges. All that is missing is wildlife of which we see little.
It is early evening and we arrive in Steamboat Springs, a charming ski town with a Main Street that is so similar to many other Colorado resort towns that I feel like I have been here before. We enjoy a wonderful dinner of lasagna and cioppini at Mazzola’s Italian Restaurant. We are determined on this trip to continue our very healthy, mostly homemade salad and veggie diet, which we have maintained this summer and I especially, relish every bite of this dinner. Tomorrow back to lettuce and bell peppers!
Tonight we are at the Steamboat Mountain Lodge. Thinking that it is not vacation season, we have been winging it without reservations most nights, totally out of my comfort zone – the past 2 nights we got the last rooms!
