Kauai: Kayaking to Secret Falls

On our first morning in Kauai, we kayaked the Wailua River to visit Secret Falls.

Of course, we took this picture of kayakers in the river from a lookout point later in the day. The skies looked a little different first thing in the morning! It was raining when we woke up and left the hotel, but Hawaii rainstorms are warm and short so we decided to just play through the rain.

The decision paid off. Not only had the rain stopped by the time we got our kayak in the water, but it had apparently scared off other tourists and we had the river almost all to ourselves. The water was like glass, and the Wailua Valley was so beautiful in the early morning light.

A couple miles later, we arrived at the trail head. Matt and I had heard that Secret Falls can get really crowded with 60-80 people at a time, but our kayak was the first one to park that day. We could hardly believe our luck!

From the trail head, it's about a 30-minute nature walk to the falls. (My maiden name being what it is, I have a hard time calling these types of things "hikes.") The trail was beautiful, and even included wading through the stream below.

Even more beautiful, though, was the sight of absolutely no one at Secret Falls.

Well, except for Matt. But he can stay.

There is a little rocky ledge right up against the waterfall, which is highly convenient for taking pictures. I loved all the little rainbows the falls created along the rocks.

Turns out, though, that the ledge isn't an awesome place for the camera to be since the lens just gets constantly sprayed by water.

So our newfound photographer friend relocated across the little pool to get a lovely picture of us sitting on the rock next to the waterfall. At just that moment, however, the falls decided to change directions. See? (Click on the picture strip for the full effect.)

Let's just zoom in on that middle picture for a sec, shall we?

Yep, we were drenched! It was pretty hilarious, and I love that we have a picture of it. Naturally, as soon as the waterfall had its fun with us, it went back to its original path and stayed that way for the remainder of our time there. Go figure!

Matt and I relaxed and played in the little pool for about an hour before heading back out. During that time, we learned that it is extremely difficult to tread water right next to another person. Who knew?

On our way out, we passed three different groups of about twenty people each making their way to Secret Falls. They'd all delayed their plans because of the rain, much to our delight! Needless to say, the trail head had just a few more kayaks on our way out than it did when we arrived that morning.

Kayaking back to the marina was a bit more adventurous this time around, too, with plenty of boats creating pretty decent-sized wakes. Matt liked to rock our kayak with the wakes so we would almost tip. Yeah, he kept things interesting alright!

Random fact: In the picture below, we are kayaking past the same spot that Harrison Ford runs out of to catch his plane in the opening scene of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

After another couple miles of paddling (talk about a great morning workout!), we made it back to the marina. 'Twas a fun little excursion!