{"id":105,"date":"2008-11-04T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-04T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"\/2008\/11\/04\/hike-the-kalalau-trail\/"},"modified":"2025-04-14T20:17:53","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T06:17:53","slug":"kalalau-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaii.com\/kalalau-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Hike the Kalalau Trail on Kaua\u02bbi"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>No list of consummate backpacking trips would be complete without mention of the 11-mile Kalalau Trail, which begins where the paved road ends on Kaua\u02bbi&#8217;s North Shore. It alternately challenges and rewards hikers with a mix of cliffside promenades and views of wild sea, silent sky, deep forest and stark cliffs, before delivering them to a white-sand beach the length of several football fields where there is little left to do but reflect on one&#8217;s inestimably good fortune.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hiking the Kalalau Trail &#8211; A Stop at Hanakapi\u02bbai<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The first two miles of the trail lead to Hanakapi\u02bbai Beach, the end of the road for most hikers. For backpacking vets, however, Hanakapi\u02bbai is the overture to a much more involved symphony. Leaving the beach at Hanakapi\u02bbai, committed backpackers will climb 800 feet out of the valley and cross the streams that bisect a series of valleys before arriving four miles later at Hanakoa Valley. There the trip to Kalalau can be broken up with an overnight stay.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hiking the Kalalau Trail &#8211; Arriving at Kalalau Beach<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The final five-mile section of the hike has had many backpackers swearing (and actually believing) that they would never do anything like it again. But that\u2019s before one emerges, most often at sunset, at the final stream crossing and the glowing white sand of Kalalau Beach.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Details About Hiking Kalalau Trail<\/h3>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Since the reopening of H\u0101\u02bbena State Park\u2014which is where the Kalalau Trail is located\u2014you\u02bbll have to have a reservation to access the park and trail. You can book your entry ahead of time on the Go H\u0101\u02bbena&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/gohaena.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website<\/a> which includes access to Ke\u02bbe Beach and the Kalalau Trail. Three options are available for entry and include a shuttle ticket, parking and entry ticket (which is the most limited) as well as an entry only pass for those parking offsite and walking in. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>For more information, visit DLNR\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/dlnr.hawaii.gov\/dsp\/home\/haena-napali-access\/\">website<\/a>\u00a0or call (808) 587-0300.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No list of consummate backpacking trips would be complete without mention of the 11-mile Kalalau Trail, which begins where the paved road ends on Kaua\u02bbi&#8217;s North Shore. It alternately challenges and rewards hikers with a mix of cliffside promenades and views of wild sea, silent sky, deep forest and stark cliffs, before delivering them to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":119725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3904],"tags":[2447],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hiking-on-kauai","tag-hiking"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v25.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hike the Kalalau Trail on Kauai | Hawaii.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"No list of consummate backpacking trips would be complete without mentioning Kalalau Trail, which begins where the paved road ends on Kauai&#039;s North Shore.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hawaii.com\/kalalau-trail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Hike the Kalalau Trail on Kaua\u02bbi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"No list of consummate backpacking trips would be complete without mentioning Kalalau Trail, which begins where the paved road ends on Kauai&#039;s North Shore.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hawaii.com\/kalalau-trail\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hawaii.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HawaiiTravel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-04T10:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-15T06:17:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta 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