Backpacking to Lonomea – Waimea Canyon, Kauai

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Hike Map]

Baron, Josh and I had been talking about backpacking into Waimea Canyon for some time, so we finally committed to doing so on the weekend of Josh’s birthday in June. Though last minute forecasts suggested thunder storms in Hawaii’s “Grand Canyon,” we (Baron, Katie, Rhonda, Paul and I… JOSH you bailer! lol.) still decided to make the steep descent to the canyon bottom, where we would explore for epic waterfalls and camp for the next three days.

The Kukui trailhead began at ~2200 ft and consisted of moderately maintained switchbacks to the canyon floor.

The substrate at some points was fairly loose, but nothing life threatening at any point.

Near the end of Kukui trail, the trail became more rocky and were surrounded by a forest of Haole Koa.

Soon afterwards, we found the riverbed at the canyon bottom and the sign above.

Turning left, we hiked upriver to find the Koaie Canyon Trail.

Which was not far from this unusually shaped “nipple” peak, hehe.

What I/we found silly was that the trailhead sign for Koaie Canyon was a 100 yards off from it’s junction with the dirt road. EXTREMELY easy to miss without prior knowledge of the area or a GPS enabled device. Lucky thing we studied our topographical maps beforehand, since our GPS was unreliable in the canyon.

The last 3 mile stretch to Lonomea Camp was tiring, but there were several insanely large boulders that always kept the landscape interesting. I’m sure the boulderers from Volcanic Rock Gym back in Honolulu would have a field day here, haha.

In about 5.5 hours, we were finally at Lonomea…

Where we would immediately take a dip into the cool, fast flowing waters of Koaie Stream, next to our camp.

Tubing down the waterfall,

…and celebratory aerial displays were imminent.

Newly rejuvenated after the long trek into the canyon, we set up camp, lit a bonfire and started cooking dinner.

We then took our meals out on the warm rocks, to eat under the stars. Such an amazing day.

Though the Kukui Trail > Koaie Trail > Lonomea Camp route may not be as long as some of the other backpacking trips documented on this site (Kalalau, Waimanu, Haleakala, etc.), it was by far the steepest elevation change + hottest trail that I’ve hiked to date. Therefore, I recommend to not underestimate the 12 roundtrip miles, especially the Kukui Trail section on the way out. Leaving in the early morning may alleviate some of the heat and torture… but not over-packing may also help, as well as training/conditioning for these types of hot, uphill trips. JOSH… I know you also had a great weekend as well, but you definitely missed out. I guess we are going to have to go back again! More questions about backpacking into Waimea Canyon via the Kukui Trail?? Just ask!!!

Aloha and mahalo nui for visiting… Come back again soon!