Nā Pali Coast
Nā Pali Coast State Park
Interesting facts
- The natural arch at Honopū Valley stands about 90 feet tall, making it the tallest natural arch in Hawaii.
- Honopū means conch shell, a name often linked to the sound the arch makes when strong north winds blow through it.
- Honopū is nicknamed the valley of the lost tribe after archaeologists in 1922 found skulls they wrongly took to be from a pre-Hawaiian people.
- Producer Dino De Laurentiis liked the coast so much that he shot all the beach scenes of the 1976 King Kong at Honopū and Kalalau.
- Honopū Beach also appears in Six Days Seven Nights (1998) and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011).
- Native Hawaiians farmed taro on a vast system of terraced fields in Kalalau Valley well into the 20th century.
- Kalalau Valley is ringed by cliffs over 2,000 feet high around a broad, flat floor about two miles long.
- The endangered shrub Dubautia kalalauensis is named after Kalalau Valley and grows nowhere else in the world.
- In earlier times the coast was a hub of trade between Hanalei, Waimea and the island of Niʻihau.
- Hanakoa, one of the valleys along the coast, is a hanging valley perched above the shore with no access down to a beach.
Why it is worth it
On the north-west side of Kauaʻi the land ends in a wall of fluted green cliffs that rise as much as 4,000 feet straight out of the Pacific. Nā Pali means simply "the cliffs", and for about 16 miles, from Kēʻē Beach in the north to Polihale in the west, there is almost no other kind of coast: knife-edged ridges, hanging valleys and sheer amphitheatres separated by deep, narrow clefts that open onto small beaches. The state park protects 6,175 acres of this shoreline.
The forms are the work of water on an old volcano. Rain and streams have cut the flanks of the island into a sequence of vertical ribs, so that the cliffs look pleated, almost like a curtain, and in the afternoon light every fold casts its own shadow. Between them lie valleys that were once home to Hawaiian communities: Kalalau, the largest, Hanakoa, Honopū and Nuʻalolo. Polynesian settlers lived here from around 1200 AD, Captain Cook passed the coast in 1778, and the last native Hawaiians known to live along it were still seen in the twentieth century. At sea level the waves have carved caves and arches into the base of the cliffs.
Much of the coast can only be seen from the water or the air, which is part of its spell. The one way in on foot is the Kalalau Trail, which runs for about 11 miles from the end of the highway at Kēʻē Beach to Kalalau Beach at the foot of Kalalau Valley, crossing five major valleys on the way, with camping by permit at Hanakoa and Kalalau. Boat trips along the coast, from rigid inflatables to catamarans, as well as kayaks and helicopter flights, reveal the stretches that no path reaches.
Getting there
The nearest airport is Līhuʻe Airport (LIH) on Kauaʻi, about 39 km away in a straight line; Līhuʻe is also the island's main town. The Kalalau Trail begins at the end of Hawaii Route 560 (the Kuhio Highway) at Kēʻē Beach on the north shore, and the western end of the coast is reached at Polihale State Park on the island's west side. The rest of the coast is seen from boat tours and helicopter flights operating on Kauaʻi.
Plan your visit
We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.
Nearby places
- Waimea Canyon State Park 14.3 km · gorge
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Nā Pali Coast State Park is a 6,175-acre (2,499 ha) state park in the U.S. state of Hawaii, located in the center of the rugged 16-mile (26 km) northwest side of Kauaʻi, the second-oldest inhabited Hawaiian island. The Nā Pali coast itself extends southwest from Keʻe Beach all the way to Polihale State Park. The nā pali along the shoreline rise as much as 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above the Pacific Ocean. The state park was formed to protect the Kalalau Valley.
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