Maha'uelpa and Ha'ula Beach Hike

I told Joanne that this would be mostly a hiking vacation, but the mountains are too steep and muddy to tackle this trip.  So, we are staying to beach hikes.

These two beaches were listed in last month's Outside Magazine as Hawaii's best two beaches.  I don't know if I would say that, but it was a fun day hike.

My friend Gary is a geologist, and gave some pointers on cool geology to look for.

We crossed ancient lithified sand dunes that are being eroded by the ocean.

And crossed active sand dunes that are being deposited today.  Pretty cool!

I thought I wanted to ....

I have always thought that if I come back in another life, that I would want to be one of the Morrow or Kriz's cats.  They live a pretty pampered life.

But then I saw how Monk seals are treated in Hawaii.

Volunteers put these signs around the Monk seal, and cordon off the area so the seal has it's own private beach area to take a nap.

Pretty nice!  If your a seal that is.

Waimea Canyon

The grand canyon of the pacific.   It was spectacular!

The hiking was tough where we went.  Slick mud, and very steep!  Really slow going, and easy to slip and hurt something.

Occaisionaly the clouds would thin out and we would get awesome views of the high plateau canopy, and a slight glimpse of the coast.  Which was 3,000' almost straight down from the edge of the trail.

It would give you creepy vertigo when you were looking over the edge.