Until we started the hike, we were debating about it. So we got a fairly late start and hit the trail at 9.20 AM. It got steep fast and soon we were looking down on Ke'e beach on one side the Na Pali cliffs on the other. Views were intermittent and trail was mostly rocky and foresty. We must have hit the trail (and in fact, Kauai) in one of its drier spells. Soon we started crossing streams and the trail was as steep as ever. Two hours later I was at Hanakapai'ai stream where I had to remove shoes to get across (while forgetting my pole behind!) Then we had to hop on what seemed like zillion boulders on bare feet to get to the beach. But the beach was very serene and though we spent half an hour it felt like nothing. All it did was rest our feet a little bit before we continued on. We soon entered the "woods"-bamboo groves, huge mango trees among others and the stream running right alongside and below us. I am not sure we gained or lost a lot of elevation but footing was tricky. After a few stream crossings, the path narrowed considerably while become slippery with mini-waterfalls. We came to yet another stream crossing and realized we had to go further to reach the falls. This stream crossing was tricky and so was the trail beyond. Soon we were boulder hopping full time to behold the 300 ft of water gushing down to a VERY cold pond below. I hadn't come this far to give in to coldness so I jumped right into the pool. One regret I will have is that I chickened out of swimming over to the waterfall like some folks did. No biggie though... We had our very dry cold sandwich from the Princeville Mart before we had to turn back. The hike back was okay but long. We rested a little bit by the Hanakapai'ai stream by the beach. After picking up Dhruva we headed over to Pasta Buffet where they were extremely surprised at the number of pasta plates we ordered at our table. What do they know! We deserrved every morsel we ate.
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