A Week on Kaua'i
All of the images in this section are photographs that I took during a trip to Kaua'i - there is no artwork featured here.
I spent a solitary week on the island of Kaua'i from July 14th to July 21st, 2004. This was exactly 20 years after my first visit to Hawai'i in 1984, in which I spent a week on Kaua'i with my family when I was 15. So this latest visit was a sentimental journey - but also a professional one, since I was in search of new material for future paintings. I found plenty of that. I hiked until I just couldn't take one more step. Kaua'i is the wildest, stormiest, most colorful, and arguably the most beautiful of all the Hawaiian islands. Please enjoy this photographic collection of highlights from my trip:
Lumaha'i Beach, on Kauai's North Shore.
Widely regarded as one of the finest beaches in Hawai'i.
The dramatic beginning of the Na Pali cliffs, as seen from Ha'ena Beach. The north shore road ends near the base of these cliffs, which then stretch uninterrupted for many miles, accessible only by foot trail. The weird spires of Kauai's heavily eroded landscape give the island its uniquely "prehistoric" quality.
A rare Hawaiian Monk Seal crawled out of the water to take a nap on the beach.
Dramatic coastline in the vicinty of the Kilauea Lighthouse. Although they're too small to be seen in this photo, hundreds of seabirds are nesting all over the cliffs at this location.
Arguably Hawaii's most breath-taking location, this is the view from the Kalalau Valley Lookout. The elevation here is about 4,000 feet. I was lucky enough to be there on an afternoon when the western sky was free of clouds, so there was nothing to obstruct the warm light of the setting sun.
Having discovered a trail leading into the forest below the Kalalau Valley Lookout, I was able to follow the track to this stunning overlook above Kalalau Beach. From this vantage point, the valley's sharp ridges and spires descend more than 2,000 feet to the shoreline.
No, this wasn't taken from a helicopter - it's another view of Kalalau Valley from the trail leading to a beach overlook. This trail was safer than it may appear. Really.
The vertigo continues at an overlook above 'Awa'awapuhi Valley.
The summit plateau of Kaua'i on an unusually clear afternoon. This was formerly the site of the central caldera of Kauai's volcano, but is now heavily eroded into a landscape of shallow ravines feeding into enormous valleys and canyons. The entire summit is covered with a forest of native Hawaiian plants, many of which are found nowhere else. In its wetter sections, this forest becomes the notorious Alaka'i Swamp...
The Alaka'i Swamp in all its glory. Averaging 50 feet (that's feet, not inches) of rain each year, this is the wettest place in the world, and arguably the least inviting. Not surprisingly, it rained like crazy on the day that I ventured in here. It was quite awful. The pools are full of the most disgusting slime and sludge ever seen. Oh, but there's a convenient boardwalk. Your feet never touch the ground...or, water. Or mud. Or slime. Whatever it is. In the photo above, the small foreground plants in the lower left corner are a dwarf variety of the common Ohi'a tree, which elsewhere grows to full size on the more solid ground along the outskirts of the swamp - as seen in the photo below, where the trees appear in the typically forbidding atmosphere of Kauai's summit:
Waimea Canyon. This really is one of the most stunning locations in Hawai'i, although you could be fooled into thinking that you were in Utah, Arizona or some similar South-western locale.
Last light on Waimea Canyon. The canyon is best viewed in the late afternoon, when the strong, direct light brings out the most brilliant color in the cliffs.