Kauai...my favorite island

Kauai is my favorite island because it's the least developed. They call it the 'garden island'. It hasn't been taken over completely by tourists and it doesn't even have a road that goes around the entire island! The east coast is only accessible by boat. We drove to the end of the road and took a hike up and over (not the entire way!) My mom wanted to show Kate and I this fun hike they do sometimes. I had killed Kate on our previous hike that my mom said she'd take us to the best look (about a 30min hike) out and then we'd go back.

The first bit was a little more uphill than I expected


Roger would have been impressed with this find! Can you spot the lizard??? I had ample time to look for wildlife waiting for Laura to catch up :)


So we made it here...


As you can see our first (and last) look out was breathtaking! Well we ran into some guys that were coming the opposite direction. I asked them about the hike to the beach and the proceeded to tell me they went even further to the waterfall....the WHAT?!!?!??! That was the hook line and sinker for me. You thought my make shift backpack was silly for my 9.4 mile hike, well after hearing about the waterfall I grabbed my mom's Coke bottle filled with water and took my Gatorade bottle filled with water and started off running! I was off for an impromptu 8 mile hike all by myself; Kate wasn't feeling another long hike after the day before.

The hike to the beach, and the beach itself were pretty uneventful. The waves were pretty big and crashed right on some rocks. No one was in the water. Now I understood why the boys kept going to the waterfall!



The hike to the waterfall was much more difficult! It was extremely muddy which was extra tricky when your hands are occupied carrying necessary water! When I got back at the end of the day, I honestly looked like someone had kicked me down in a puddle of mud and beat me up. Yeah I was that hot looking but it was worth it!

...did I mention you had to cross a couple different streams? Yeah, no worries, I did fall in!



Have no fear, I eventually made it!





Me after a little swim/bath to wash the mud off myself :)



This was my favorite hike! I even had fun doing it by myself! I turned it into a competition against myself and tried to get back before planned. Since I went by myself with barely any water, late in the day I told my mom to send out the search parties if I wasn't back by 6:30. Well I'm a little competitive and made it back by 4:45 even with a 1/2hr swim :)