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Here is a picture of my first Hawaii sunrise. Sunrises and sunsets just seem to be prettier in the Pacific. The air is certainly cleaner here than it is in the DC area. Lots fewer people, too!

I have just come from an area under water restrictions (Maryland) and I will soon be at Kwajelein where the only source of fresh water is rainfall and so conserving water will be important. Hawaii is not short of fresh water. I took a luxuriously long shower this morning without feeling guilty!

I then left the hotel for what turned out to be the best day of hiking in my life--and I've had some great days of hiking before this. I left not knowing exactly what I would be doing but I was headed for the end of the road in northwest Kauai and for the trails in Na Pali Coast State Park. At one of the scenic overlooks, I hooked up with a young couple (Rob and Lori) from San Jose because I was not comfortable hiking by myself. The three of us decided to head for Hanakapiai Falls, a trail 4 miles in and 4 miles back.

The first two miles were along the cliffs above the sea. High cliffs were on our left, the ocean on our right. The cliffs were steep, sometimes even vertical but always covered with lush green vegetation. The ocean was a shade of blue that was deeper than the sky. The picture does a fair job of showing the colors, but does not convey the grandeur of the huge cliffs and seemingingly endless ocean. Every turn of the trail bombarded us with another gorgeous green-cliffs and blue-ocean view. It was fantastic, but only the beginning.

The next two miles turned inland from the beach and roughly followed the Hanakpiai stream up to 1200 feet above the ocean. It was a pretty strenuous climb over a muddy, slippery trail. But that trail took us straight through the lush, green vegetation that was covering the cliffs. For virtually the entire trip we were walking through a tunnel of green. Some of the trees and bamboos were extremely tall, but all the intervening stories of the forest were filled in. Clearly this type of forest needs a LOT of water. The guava trees were dropping fruits (literally-I heard six fall within 20 feet of the trail). It made for a very fragrant trail! We couldn't usually see the river, but we could always hear it.

Then we got to the falls. These falls are 300 feet tall! That is like taking a football field and standing it up on its end. They seemed to fall forever into a deep pool at their base. But now the cool part: we swam in the pool around behind the falls and then back out directly underneath them. Because the water was cascading down the cliff rather than free-falling the whole 300 feet, the impact of the water on our heads was not much greater than a good shower with a lot of water pressure. But of course the water was falling all around us over the area of a large classroom. And the wind!! The falling water was pushing the air out of its way so hard that we could barely swim against the wind--the current was no problem! Resting behind a waterfall that is falling from 300 feet above you is a pretty amazing experience. But swimming the backstroke through the falls and looking straight up at that cascade of water is an image that rivals everything else I've seen in my whole life. That image alone was worth the trip to Kauai and the 4-mile hike to get there. The water was also just slightly cold. It felt very cold when we first went in, but after a few seconds of swimming against the wind it was perfectly refreshing. What a bombardment of the senses: cool water, roaring falls, wind on our face, and that amazing cascade of water. Here I am sitting on the rocks just in front of the pool at the base of the rocks. I am about 60 feet in front of where the falls hit the pool.

It took another two-and-a-half hours to navigate the trail back down the hill. But the whole time, that image of the water falling down right on top of me still kept running through my mind. The hike was exhausting. I am sure I will sleep well tonight. But that water......

Alan Nelson