I know this is a bit late. I wanted to write this on Christmas day, but my daughter got an iPad, and I picked it up and started playing with it, and nothing else got done that evening.
Last week on the Kapa’a bypass, there appeared the most incredible sight: a snowman on Kaua’i!
Of course, since we don’t have snow, it’s just hay and white spray-paint—but nobody’s complaining (or griping about how Frosty songs are discriminating to Hawaii). I’m assuming it was made by the employees of the Farias Cattle Company who manage the ranch on the land around the bypass.
If you look closely, it’s a real lasso, and I do believe the other hand is a shaka. Because Kaua’i (and much of Hawai’i) recieves plenty of rain and sun, the pastures are rich, and cattle are outside the whole year. And because they are not enclosed in feedlots, there is still a need for real cowboys to round up the cattle from the pastures. At least that’s my theory for why a real cowboy culture, complete with lassos and rodeos, still exists in Hawai’i.
The photo above has Makaleha mountain in the background, with some waterfalls. Here’s another view with Nonou, the Sleeping Giant, behind. Maybe all the Sleeping Giant needs to wake up is an old hat with some magic still in it:
And the question about snow on Kaua’i is still open. I have heard some winter temperatures up in Koke’e have been cold enough for frost (not this year that I know of), which means cold enough to snow under the right conditions. But I still don’t have eye-witness accounts or photographic proof of actual snowflakes falling on Kaua’i, let alone sticking and not melting.
This is the best I can do for now:
, by Earthwalk Press, available in a weather-proof plastic edition. You don’t need a topo map to hike to Kalalau, but if you’re like me and you love maps , this is the one to take. It’s a topo map printed on a plastic sheet that covers Na Pali, Kokee and upper Waimea Canyon. It also has an enlarged map and accurate description of the Kalalau trail on the back.
