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Part 3 – Hiking in Kokee – Honopu Ridge
Posted: November 5, 2008
Another great hike in Kokee is the Honopu Ridge hike which descends some 1,400 feet to overlook spectacular Honopu Valley on the Na Pali Coast of Kauai.
The Honopu Ridge trail is an unofficial hunter’s trail that is not maintained. The beginning of the trail is a jumble of interconnected paths that makes for a confusing start (and finish — since you come back the same way you go in). After making our way through the mess of trails we descended Honopu Ridge through dense mesic forests which receive less than 100 inches of rain per year — considerably less than the rainforests of Koke’e.
While we made our way down the trail, we noted that many of the ohia trees were covered with a charming shaggy green moss at the base of their trunks. Uluhe ferns choke portions of the trail and require hikers to duck through uluhe tunnels while descending the trail.
When the forest opens up and you have your first view of the coast, the island of Niihau and its offshore islet of Lehua lie off the coast of Kauai.
After descending through several alternating sections of mesic forests and open uluhe sections, the trail reaches the edge of Honopu Valley where stunning fluted cliffs are right before your very eyes. I took the photo above and the next photo below several years ago in the winter months when the vegetation is much greener.
One of my favorite vantage points is through a forest of koa trees overlooking Honopu Valley. The red rocky outcrop on the coast is the rocky point we climbed up several days before when we swam from Kalalau to Honopu to climb up the arch.
Another favorite vantage point is a little further down the ridge through a grove of ohia lehua trees when they are in bloom with orange and red flowers. The photo above was taken last summer when the vegetation is much drier.
Honopu is the next valley over from Kalalau. We descended the ridge to see the edge of Kalalau Valley around the coast. One of the intriguing things about Honopu Valley is that according to oral tradition Honopu was one of the last homes of the menehune, the original inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands who were of short stature. Honopu earned the nickname “Valley of the Lost Tribe” after these last menehune.
The ridge becomes increasingly dry and crumbly the further you descend. Pat Rooney, Miyo Kimura, and Justin Ohara pose at the point we were turned around and began to climb back up to make our way back up to the road.
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This is the 3rd blog entry in a series of posts about my Kokee hiking adventure with 3 HTMC friends after the Labor Day weekend. The previous (2nd) entry is here and the next (4th) entry is here.
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SOURCES
Unofficial Kokee Hiking Guide, Web Guide
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