Blessed with spectacular natural panoramas and lush vegetation, some call Kauai Hawaii’s most scenic island. Although it is the oldest among the Hawaiian islands (scientists estimate it to be 5.1 million years old), Kaua‘i has only become more beautiful with age.
Anchoring the western part of the major Hawaiian islands, circular-shaped Kaua‘i is the fourth largest in the state, with 552 square miles and 90 miles of coastline. Nearly 60,000 people call Kaua‘i home.
Kauai is home to two of the world’s great natural wonders. Measuring 10 miles long, two miles wide and over 3,500 feet deep, Waimea Canyon is the largest canyon in the Pacific. Carved over thousands of years ago by rivers and floods flowing from the summit of 5,080-foot Mount Waialeale, this canyon is such a visual spectacle that Mark Twain dubbed it the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific."
Hugging the northwest coastline of Kauai is the Napali Coast, one of the most awe-inspiring places on Earth. A day trip to Napali (via helicopter, catamaran or raft) will bring you face to face with 2,000-foot sea cliffs, cascading waterfalls, playful dolphins and—from November through May—magnificent humpback whales.
Other scenic locales worth exploring include Hanalei Bay, Kilauea Point, Wailua River and Poipu Beach.
Kaua‘i is also the home to the Menehune, a mythical race of small people who performed amazing feats of engineering and construction on the island. The Menehune Ditch and Alekoko Fishpond are among the projects attributed to these hardworking people, who worked only at night (any project not completed overnight was abandoned). Today, scholars speculate that the Menehune may have been, in fact, descendants of the first wave of settlers who journeyed to Hawaii from the Marquesas in the sixth century. Photo Credits:Photo1: J Wilmot, Photo3: Courtesy Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, Photo4: Peter French; courtesy HVCB, Photo5: Peter French; courtesy HVCB ©2003-2004 Media-HI, Inc. All rights reserved. |
