Mike in the Wild

Of the three ways to visit Kauai's Na Pali Coast, flying overhead in a helicopter was the least interesting to me.  It also cost the most, so it was easy to rule it out on my already-expensive vacation.  I decided on the two other visits, however: one by hiking, the other by boat.  Each was a completely different way to witness some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.  Panoramic view of the Na Pali Coast from a tour boat. Na Pali Coast from the Pihea Trail. Superlatives abound on Kauai.  It is the oldest and remotest of the main Hawaiian Islands, lying furthest west than the others.  It was also the first island to be settled by the ancient Polynesians and the first to be visited by Captain James Cook, the first European to land on any Hawaiian island.  Finally, it's home to the wettest spot on Earth, where over 460 inches of rain a year falls.  As a result, the verdant island is referred to as the Garden Island.  Thanks to Kauai's volcanic history, mountainous te

For the first time outside of a summer month, I visited Kauai in April.  In fact, of my many trips to the Hawaiian Islands, it was only my third time not traveling to the state in the summer.  It  was also my very first springtime visit to Hawaii.   On my only visit to Hawaii in the winter, to the Big Island a year ago in February, I was overjoyed by the number of humpback whales I witnessed near the shore.  However on this recent April trip to Kauai, I was just missing whale season, the last of the behemoths having already departed for their feeding grounds in the Arctic.  Nesting seabirds were also on my mind as a number of species lay their eggs and and raise their young on Kauai.  Several albatross, shearwater, tropicbird, booby, and a frigatebird species all congregate on a specific peninsula, Kilauea Point, on the north shore of the island.  The site of an historic lighthouse, the area is now a National Wildlife Refuge.  Some of the birds live at sea most of the year, only visiti

Nothing excited me more while planning my latest visit to Kauai than a return to Tunnels Beach for snorkeling.  On an island chock-full of attractions, the beach was my very first outing on my first day on Hawaii's Garden Island.  Swimming with schools of surgeonfish on fish highways, green sea turtles ascending for breaths of air, and colorful parrotfish chomping on bites of coral were just some of the memories that I wanted to revisit from my very last snorkel there two-and-a-half years ago.  While my expectations were eventually exceeded, it would take three separate visits to Tunnels to finally happen.  Tunnels Beach is close to the end of the road on Kauai, where Route 560 or the Kuhio Highway terminates near the Na Pali Coast on the mountainous and scenic north shore of the island.   The beach is actually reached from Ha'ena State Park, where there is very limited parking but facilities like a freshwater shower, restrooms, and more importantly, a lifeguard station.   Howe

As my week-long visit to Kauai reached its last day,  I had seen very few turtles .  In fact, I encountered only three.  One was sunning itself in Poipu along with two monk seals on a beach crowded with tourists.  Another floated by my tour boat as it sailed along the Napali Coast.  Finally I swam with one on the reef off of Tunnels Beach while I snorkeled from that same tour boat.  My visits to the Hawaiian Islands typically include numerous sighting of green sea turtles: usually too many to count.  So I was desperate to recapture some of that good fortune when I set out snorkeling at Anini Beach on that last day in Hawaii. Encountering green sea turtles is becoming easier and easier thanks to decades of conservation efforts.  The species was protected in 1978 under the Endangered Species Act and the results are  noticeable today.  On my previous trip to Hawaii, to the island of Maui, I never entered the water - which I did multiple times a day - without seeing at least one turtle. On