While we were off on our horseback ride, our friends did some exploring and found Secret Beach west of Kilauea Lighthouse. They were so excited about it and we decided that we all had to get up early the next morning for our final sunrise there. The road to get there isn’t really marked but I detailed the directions of how we went below. You have to hike in to access the beach. The hike is steep and no joke, but totally doable–even when it’s muddy. It took us about 15-20 minutes because of said mud and also because we were carrying our coffees down to enjoy at sunrise. A couple of us biffed it several times due to the mud (not me somehow!!). Once you get down there, it opens up and all you can say is “Wow!” It’s absolutely breathtaking. The beach is long with a wide center of sand. On either side of the beach there are giant formations of lava rocks. To the east the beach ends against a cliff adorned with bright green foliage and to the west it ends against Kilauea Point and the lighthouse. The waves that morning were pretty wild and when the sun came up against all that beauty, it was truly amazing. Sitting there, sipping coffee, with the beach to ourselves; we were mesmerized.
We used our last hour of the morning to seek out one last treasure. Several locals recommended that we check out Stone Dam. It is not far from Secret Beach and Kilauea town. We took Kuhio Hwy to Kuawa Rd. The hike is called the Wai Koa Loop and you can do a long hike or a short hike. The long hike takes you around and behind Silver Falls Ranch where we did our horseback tour, so I can imagine that you would see lots of varied trees and foliage. We chose the short hike because we didn’t have a lot of time. It was a flat open trail that ended by some small bungalo homes. We weren’t sure what to expect when we got there, but again, we could only say, “Wow!” There were a few other hikers there and one older local man who was telling them stories of how he grew up there and played in the waters and along the terraces of the Dam as a boy. Local pollution keeps people out if it now which is a real shame because you can imagine how soothing it would be for your soul to relax in the waters in such a tranquil place.
Our time on Kauai was filled with beautiful sunrises, gorgeous beaches and lots of inspiring natural beauty. It’s a quiet island, especially at Christmas time when the days are short. Everything is laid back and has a country feel and there seems to be more chickens than people. We were off to Maui to ring in the New Year and see what wonders that island held for us. Let the fun continue–Hauʻoli makahiki hou!
[Directions to Secret Beach: Turn off of Kuhio Hwy onto Kolo road in Kilauea. You will quickly turn left at Kilauea Rd. Follow that around to Kauapea Rd and turn left there. Go down Kauapea Rd. until you come to a right hand turn. It’s a small road and is unnamed. It’s residential so it’s pretty quiet. You will come to a cul-de-sac where you can park. There are three houses there (I believe). Make sure to be polite and park accordingly so you don’t block and of the driveways. One of the houses is a stunning Japanese style houses and we took the “trail” to the left of that. The trail was unmarked but we did see a hand scrawled warning sign about the danger of the surf at the beach.]
