Wetter Than Waialeale

After several days that each received more than 4 inches (10 cm) of rain last week, everyone was waiting for the sunshine to come back. Finally, the weather forecast called for a break in the clouds over the weekend. But before the storm was done, it had the final say: 7 inches (18 cm) of rain at my house from noon to 7 pm on Thursday (March 16th).

I looked up the rain gauge records online and found we received more than Waialeale that day, indeed all of Kapaa got drenched with more than 6 inches (15cm):

Source: National Weather Service Honolulu Forecast Office

Nounou once again had its temporary waterfalls, and with the clouds blowing over, looked like a misty Chinese mountain painting (well, not quite):

Nounou Waterfalls

The waterfalls on Nounou mountain, the Sleeping Giant, are so ephemeral because there is so little area on the upper slopes to catch and funnel the rain. It takes a lot of rain and a quick break in the clouds to see them. We had another four inches of rain last night, there were a few showers in the morning, and so I was lucky to see them when I went out around noon today. And they lasted long enough for me to go get my camera and tripod. Here are the very rare Nounou waterfalls:

There are actually two waterfalls, the taller one of about 200′ (60 m) on the large black cliff face, and a shorter one of about 40′ (12 m) on the smaller cliff above to the left. In this picture, the lower one is falling straight, and the upper one is being blown almost upwards by the wind. There is so little water flowing that the wind would sometimes blow both of them sideways.

I bet Nounou has memories of many larger waterfalls, when it was a bigger mountain. When clouds obscure the peak, as they have often recently, the cliffs looked like those of the Na Pali coast or maybe Hanalei, reaching up into the rainy forested uplands. According to Chuck Blay’s book “Kauai’s Geologic History,” Nounou mountain is about 5 million years old and part of the original volcanic island-building stage of Kauai. Long ago, the Sleeping Giant was one of the pali, large cliff or escarpment, with streams from the uplands plunging over his shoulders, perhaps into the sea below.

Old Trail Rediscovered

As an avid hiker and explorer on Kauai, I’m always on the lookout for a new trail. So when I heard there might be a path down to the Wailua River that joined up with the kayaker’s trail to Secret Falls, I had to check it out.

Known as the Old Cart Trail, it is an old access trail on state land that was never developed or maintained as a trail, probably because it only goes down to the river, which can be dangerous to cross. It begins across the street from the Nounou-Kuamo’o trailhead on Kuamo’o about 2 miles inland from the circle road. There is a locked vehicle gate and an open pedestrian access, as shown in the following photo:

The right-of-way is very overgrown with weeds and the itchy buffalo grass, but there is a faint use trail that goes through. Then you need to find you way through some bamboo, still going straight with a fence on your left. Eventually, you can’t get through the bamboo so you need to walk right next to the fence on the left. At the end of the fence, you’re at the top of a small ravine going straight down to the river. On the left of the ravine is a trail, and after climbing over a few trunks and branches, it turns into a wide trail that curves left and descends into the river valley.

After a while, this nice trail disappears in the forest, near a place where this vine has created a perfect corkscrew and severly stunted it’s host tree. At this point, you want to turn right and head down towards the river through the tangled branches of the hau trees. Try to remember your path so you can retrace your steps on the way out.

Depending on what path you chose through the hau, you should reach the river within a few minutes. Then you follow it upstream until you see the gauging station on the other side:

The trail to Secret Falls goes upstream along the river, right next to the gauging station. You’ll probably need to take your shoes off and use a stick to cross the river, but do not cross if the river is above your knees. Once across, follow the trail to the right about a tenth of a mile until you cross two small streams. Then climb over an embankment and follow the trail up the side stream to Secret Falls. Retrace your steps to the trailhead.

In summary, I would say that kayaking is a much more enjoyable way to reach the waterfall, and this trail should only be attempted by the adventurous who don’t mind getting scratched by the overgrown brush and who know how to cross the river safely.

WARNING: crossing rivers and swimming in waterfalls are dangerous activities. Rivers may sweep you away easily and can flood quickly to trap you on the other side. Waterfalls sometimes carry rocks and branches with fatal consequences and the nearby cliffs are unstable. Exercise caution and proceed at your own risk.

Waipoo Falls

On our way to Kokee Saturday, we had to pull off the road to look at Waipoo falls going strong from the recent rains. Waipoo literally means “head-water,” which is fitting because the waterfall is at the head of the Waimea Canyon and feeds what becomes the Waimea River below. The upper falls are about 100 feet (30 m) high, and the main falls about 400 feet (120m) high There is a relatively easy hike that leads to great views from the eroded ridge to the left of the falls, and then right to the top of the upper falls.

All summer, it had been less impressive because there was less rain. The water from Kokee Stream which feeds it is diverted into the ditches to irrigate the sugar cane, so this waterfall really suffers in low rain.

Swimming Hole

On Saturday, Sonja and I went to the Waikoko stream swimming hole, one of the shortest hikes to one of the nicest places around. Known as the “jungle hike” in the popular Ultimate Kauai Guidebook, it does however require a half-hour of driving on a dirt road, the last mile of which requires a 4x4. But here is your reward (don’t forget to thank your car):

Two streams meet just as they enter the pool, cascading down over basalt steps. The pool is artificial because it is part of a water diversion ditch system. Water is diverted from the Wailua river to the north, runs in a ditch through a tunnel to here. We saw some local kids at the pool who had floated through the tunnel on their boogie boards. A dam holds the water, creates the pool and channels into another ditch heading south (left in the picture). The trail continues along the ditch for a while, but we didn’t explore any further.