September 21, 2012

Wednesday, September 21, 2012.  Waimea Valley

Today was one of our favorite days...we hiked Waimea Valley. Here is some views from the overlook

  

Our plan was to walk the road down to the beach, go across the beach and up the trail on the other side.  The trail is open--you can hike over to the next valley but that is more of a backpack trip.  We were going to start on the Muliwai Trail and see how far we got. 

 

We saw the usual warning signs that meant it was going to be one of our kind of hikes!!

 

So we start the road down...which was easy going but I can only imagine how the hike back up is going to be!  Pretty views of the valley too.

 

Once we get to the bottom, we walk the road heading towards the beach.

 

And then headed to grab a geocache!

Found it!!!  The trail we had to go up to get to it...

 

Views from the geocache.  

 

We then head back to the beach...

We came to a stream that we had to cross...by going thru it.  There wasn't a way to boulder hop across it. 

 

We didn't bring our Keen's so we took our shoes off and crossed it barefoot.  The hiking stick helped get across without taking a swim! 

 

Looking back towards the overlook...you can see the road we walked down.  

 

A waterfall in the distance

Pictures on the beach. 

 

We saw this sign and thought we would take the Kings Trail for a while and see where it went.  

Hmmm...Jason is always looking for real estate...wonder how expensive it is!

We didn't go too far down this trail--it was like this and went by private property so we turned around.  

So we head back to the Muliwai Trail...I find it disturbing that there has to be signs indicating to pack it in, pack it out.  I thought this was common knowledge...but apparently not. 

 

This is the trail...with the gorgeous views.

 

The waterfall in the background... 

 

and the road we came down on. 

The trail was amazing...so many different terrains. 

There were huge trees on the top of the ridge... 

 

We decided to turn around and head back.  

We stopped for Lunch--left over Macadamia Nut Pancakes and enjoyed the view.   

 

Repeat pictures but the views were just that beautiful! 

 

Back on the beach--drying our feet after the stream crossing and putting our shoes back on while enjoying the ocean. 

Walking back we found this jeep about halfway to the beach. I just had to take a picture--they have a jeep but didn't want to cross that puddle?  Made no sense to me.   

There was a fork in the road--when we came down the road we went to the beach so we decided to see where the road went.  We knew anything off the road was private property so we stuck to walking the road.   

 

Starting back up the road to the trailhead.  It was steep and a workout!  You can see Jason kicking my butt!

Haha...these people got a ride back up!! 

But we made it...and then saw the sign that is was a 25% grade.  Wow.   

 

I think this is a view by the lookout but not sure.  

We grabbed a few geocaches while in the area...and I fell...shocking, I know...on dirt.  Good thing it wasn't on any lava.  Didn't think it was that bad because it didn't bleed but weeks later, I still have marks. 

 

Views driving around Honoka'a 

A few more geocaches--the second one wasn't hidden too well.  

 

We had read about these Portuguese donuts dipped in sugar called Malasadas.  Tex Drive-In has the best on the Island.  We got a plain one and decided to come back tomorrow for more with fillings!  

 

Went back to the Condo for dinner.  We stopped by theWaikoloa Village Market for some range-fed steaks--heard they get Tuesday and Friday deliveries.  The beef is better than the grain-fed beef and did not disappoint.  We also did up some fries and zucchini for dinner.