Maha’ulepu Trail
The Maha’ulepu Trail starts at Shipwreck Beach in Poipu on Kauai. The trail climbs to the top of the seabluffs looking over Keoneloa Bay.
The bluffs are mostly lithified sand dunes – calcite cementation of wind-blown carbonate and other materials. Trails run along the top of the bluffs but the most interesting routes go up and down on rock shelves overlooking the incoming waves. Sea turtles can be spotted below Makawehi, the limestone point which is the southwestern tip of Kauai.
With no protecting reef, the waves crash onto the rocks, but the south shore sees smaller waves in winter, calm enough for catamarans, sailboats, fishing boats, and route boats that round the point and go up as far as the Hoary Head Range.
Haupa is the tallest point of the Hoary Head Range to the north of the Maha’ulepu Trail.
The trail continues past a sacred site called Heiau Hoouliuia, skirts the golf course, passes the horse stables, then over some rough terrain to the Makauwahi Cavern, a sinkhole and cave system.
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Past the cavern is Gillin’s Beach, the first of a string of beaches to the end of the Maha’ulepu Trail.
Our favorite beach on all of Kauai is the north end of Gillin’s Beach where a ringing reef protects the beach.
This was the site of an invasion force from the Big Island of Hawaii in the 1300’s. Kauai repelled the force and was never conquered.
Past this beach are more beaches, lithified dunes, a blowhole, and headlands before the trail ends at hidden Haula Beach under the eastern end of the Hoary Head Range. On the way back we visited the penned land tortoises near the Cave Preserve.
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The Maha’ulepu Trail is not what we usually think of as a trail. It is a route over rocky headlands, along beaches, through lava flows, passing reefs, tidal pools, undercut cliffs, and more, all on the ocean’s edge. Although we have done this route many times, we can’t think of any other “trail” we would rather do over and over again.
