You might think, when visiting an island, that your first adventures would involve surf and sand. Instead, we headed inland (or mauka which is toward the mountain in Hawaiian) and took a look at the Waimea Canyon. Waimea Canyon is a specatular canyon north of Kekaha were we are staying that Mark Twain once dubbed "the Grand Canyon of the Pacific" and it really is just that stunning.

Waimea Canyon from the Waimea Canyon Overlook

This picture that I took in widescreen is one of my favorites from the day. Shrunk down to blog-acceptable size, it hardly does the scenery justice. But I hope it does convey some of the majesty of this work of nature. From what I understand, that canyon was formed by a combination of repeated volcanic eruptions and lava flows, several rivers and general water run off. At its tallest point, it's about 3-4000 feet.

What makes Kauai so truly stunning to me so far is how it is like stepping forward into geological time.

The first Hawaiian island that we visited was Hawai'i -- "the Big Island". This island is still incredibly volcanically active and still growing in size. You can see lava flows and erupting volcanos. Mauna Kea, considered dormant, is over 14,000 feet tall. The western side of the island looks almost like a lunar landscape, where the most recent flows have occured, while the eastern side of the island, which gets much more rain, is more green and lush, but still rocky and jagged.

Last year we visited Maui. Maui is just north and west of the Big Island. None of its volcanoes are considered active any more, but you can drive to the top of Haleakala and once again, you are 13-14,000 feet above sea level looking down onto a barren rocky landscape. The north side of the island is lush and green, and you see occasional places where the jagged lava rocks peek out, but mostly the north side of the island doesn't give the impression of being volcanic. The south side of the island is dry, and as you drive around the southern base of Haleakala you can see evidence of old lava flows, but you are also struck by the small plants and trees that are taking hold. Even without too much rain, biology is taking over from geology. Maui gives the impression of being more careworn than the Big Island. And this is most clearly in evidence when you drive around the mountain that is the main structure of the north western half of the island. The volcanic activity is long gone, and what you find is water and plants breaking down the rock and smoothing out and flattening the surfaces.

Looking at Kaua'i is like fast-forwarding into time again (John and I haven't been to O'ahu, but I suspect if we did go, we would see another intermediate phase in geological evolution). Kaua'i has long since been separated from the hot spot in the floor of the Pacific Ocean that resulted in this incredible island chain. There are no 14,000 foot peaks on Kaua'i. While it is warmer on the south and western portions of the island, the entire place is surprisingly green and rich, hard volcanic edges softened by time. Kaua'i is firmly in the process of being reclaimed by the ocean that it arose from.

After going up Waimea Canyon Road to the Waimea Canyon Lookout, we drove back down the road to the Kukui Trail. The Kukui Trail descends down into the canyon and allows you to see the changes that occur, both geologically and botanically as you go lower into the canyon. It's something of a challenging hike because the elevation changes pretty dramatically in only a mile or so, but we loved the changing views of the canyon and the vegetation. We only went about a mile along the trail because it was late afternoon when we started, and we didn't want to do the return trip in the dark.

I've loaded the day's best pictures into my Kaua'i Gallery. If you've already looked at the first couple of pictures, then you can go here to get to the start of the pictures for today.

I'll be back as soon as time permits. I have more pictures from our trip up the northern part of Waimea Canyon Road, as well as some video. I do so very much love my little camera!