The coast less traveled....Kauai's Napali Coast a magical mystery tour
Feb 3, 2003, 1:07 am
#1
Moderator Hilton Honors, Travel News, West, The Suggestion Box, Smoking Lounge & DiningBuzz
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2000
Programs: Honors Diamond, Hertz Presidents Circle, National Exec Elite
Posts: 36,025
The coast less traveled....Kauai's Napali Coast a magical mystery tour
The coast less traveled....Kauai's Napali Coast a magical mystery tour
By Anne Chalfant, Contra Costa Times
The Napali cliffs tell their own story ... it's just a matter of listening.
Some ancient memory shard stirs at the sight of these raw, prehistoric cliffs rising in the mist of the Hawaiian island of Kauai. It's no surprise that the velvety green crags served as dinosaur land in the movie "Jurassic Park" -- there are few places like the Napali Coast on the planet.
The approach to the Napali Coast is blessedly limited. This is no theme park. You can arrive by foot or by sea, but there's no road, no parking lot. The occasional sightseeing helicopter does buzz by, an annoyance to those caught up in quieter contemplation of this land before time.
I took both land and sea routes. One day I sailed to the cliffs by chartered catamaran; the next I hiked part of the Kalalau trail into the cliffs' rain forest.
However you choose to visit the Napali Coast, Kauai has already prepped you for a gentler Hawaii. Only 33 miles wide and 25 miles long, the "Garden Island" is a sanctuary. Its tropical showers scare some sun lovers away, but they conjure the island's lush greenery and voluptuous floral displays.
We sailed the Napali Coast on rough-and-tumble October seas, departing from Port Allen on Capt. Andrew Evans' 55-foot commercial catamaran. We stopped to snorkel: The water was warm, and yellow and blue fish flitted about, but soon we were sucking down snootfuls of water in the unrestful seas.
So we sailed on. Eerie in the misty distance lay Ni'ihau, the "Forbidden Island." To gain entry to the secretive island, you must be Hawaiian, or be invited.
More spookiness: a long stretch of beach bordering Pacific Missile Range at Barking Sands. Missiles are launched during tests here, and pleasure craft haven't been allowed to land on the beach since Sept. 11, 2001....
More at http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/l...el/5088213.htm
By Anne Chalfant, Contra Costa Times
The Napali cliffs tell their own story ... it's just a matter of listening.
Some ancient memory shard stirs at the sight of these raw, prehistoric cliffs rising in the mist of the Hawaiian island of Kauai. It's no surprise that the velvety green crags served as dinosaur land in the movie "Jurassic Park" -- there are few places like the Napali Coast on the planet.
The approach to the Napali Coast is blessedly limited. This is no theme park. You can arrive by foot or by sea, but there's no road, no parking lot. The occasional sightseeing helicopter does buzz by, an annoyance to those caught up in quieter contemplation of this land before time.
I took both land and sea routes. One day I sailed to the cliffs by chartered catamaran; the next I hiked part of the Kalalau trail into the cliffs' rain forest.
However you choose to visit the Napali Coast, Kauai has already prepped you for a gentler Hawaii. Only 33 miles wide and 25 miles long, the "Garden Island" is a sanctuary. Its tropical showers scare some sun lovers away, but they conjure the island's lush greenery and voluptuous floral displays.
We sailed the Napali Coast on rough-and-tumble October seas, departing from Port Allen on Capt. Andrew Evans' 55-foot commercial catamaran. We stopped to snorkel: The water was warm, and yellow and blue fish flitted about, but soon we were sucking down snootfuls of water in the unrestful seas.
So we sailed on. Eerie in the misty distance lay Ni'ihau, the "Forbidden Island." To gain entry to the secretive island, you must be Hawaiian, or be invited.
More spookiness: a long stretch of beach bordering Pacific Missile Range at Barking Sands. Missiles are launched during tests here, and pleasure craft haven't been allowed to land on the beach since Sept. 11, 2001....
More at http://www.bayarea.com/mld/cctimes/l...el/5088213.htm
