Kaua'i 2: Kayaking the Wailua River to Secret Falls

 On Thursday, August 26, 2021, our main plan was to go kayaking.

I woke up before 6 a.m. again. We could almost see the sunset from the lanai, but it didn't quite come right up there (which was just as well, because it meant we could eat breakfast in the shade).

So I went down to the "back yard" and strung up a hammock between two trees that were conveniently located out there. It was a lovely place to lay and read scriptures while waiting for the sun to rise. I don't know how I went through the first 5 decades of my life without portable hammocks.

Linette came out and joined me as the sun made its way up.

Once everyone was up, we went to pick up kayaks that we had reserved. They had everything needed to stick them right up on top of our van.

We drove a few minutes to the Wailua River and headed upstream. Adam and Sienna were in one kayak, Linette and I were in another, and Jared had his own.

I kept trying to figure out how to position my iPhone and water camera to make them accessible but safe. When Linette noticed that I wasn't paddling, I kept saying, "I'm just getting sit-chu-way-ted."

There were other people on kayaks and standing paddle boards as we went along.

The scenery was gorgeous the whole way.

After paddling up the river for 2 miles, we arrived at the kayak "parking lot." We took our dry bags with us as a backpack (which had our lunch and water in it). The kayak rental place said they never had a problem with people stealing kayaks or life jackets--just with occasionally grabbing the wrong kayak by accident. So we carefully noted the ID# on ours.

Then we began a 1-mile hike to "Secret Falls". This involved a couple of river crossings, so we did it in swim suits and water shoes.

Part of the trail was pretty thick with giant grass.

The path mostly followed the river (where it was by now too shallow to kayak).

Parts of the trail had a boardwalk to protect the environment and our feet. At one point, there was a little shrine of sorts with pretty flowers.

Sienna added a flower in order to join in.

We found these mushrooms, and decided not to eat them. In related news, we're still alive.

Much of the hike was through lush jungle, so it was really pretty and shady.

We came across a tree with funny-looking rounded knobs on it. Sienna decided to climb it.

We tried to help Jared get up there, too, which didn't really work. But then he jumped up there on his own with no problem.

 

Eventually a guide walked by and said that this was a mango tree, and that some people are allergic to it. So we got everyone down and washed off in the river just in case. (Everyone was fine).

A lot of the trees have some roots above ground, which can be a tripping hazard when you hike over them. But they look cool.

As we neared the waterfall, we had one more river crossing.

Finally we arrived at "Secret Falls". Its real name is Uluwehi Falls, and every tourist knows about it, so it's not really a big secret. However, it actually does not appear in Google Maps at all, so maybe it is a secret...

We had to navigate a few more hurdles to get to the falls.

It was beautiful! Like I said, the falls are no secret, and there was a good crowd there. Here you can see Sienna in the foreground in blue and white.

Linette jumped in and made her way under the actual falls. She said, "Wow! That really pummels you!"

I waded in to join her.

Then the kids came out, too. It felt nice to swim around after the hike, and the water wasn't too cold.

We all took turns going under the actual waterfall. It is about 120 feet tall, so the water gets moving by the time it smacks you on the head.

Here's a video that gives a sense of how much more intense it is than a nice picture of a waterfall might lead you to believe.

I walked behind the waterfall where it was slightly less intense, but it was still hard to keep your eyes open for long.

We were also glad no rocks chose that moment to come over and bean us on the head.

What a gorgeous place!

After our swim, we had another peanut butter sandwich lunch (we had two jars--creamy and chunky--and a jar of jam to get through, so it was our lunch of choice during several outings).

Jared's phone had some moisture or fingerprints or something on the lens that gave him a cool magical look.

We hiked back, and I crossed over the creek on this log. I found it strange that if I thought carefully about each step, I'd almost lose my balance. But if I just went for it and trusted myself, it was no problem.

We enjoyed the trees and flowers on the way back to the kayaks.

These mushrooms were oh so tiny.

Soon we were at our first river crossing again.

Locating our kayaks took a bit of doing, even with the precautions we took, so I could see how someone could end up with the wrong ones.

Next we paddled down to the fork in the river, and back up the other fork to Fern Grotto.

When we got there, there was a beautiful boat dock that we had been told not to touch or the people got cranky. Someone in our group misheard us, though, and thought we said, "Don't touch the dog" instead of "dock". So we expounded on that thought.

• "Don't touch the dog."
• "Don't climb out onto the dog."
• "Don't walk on the dog, sit on the dog, or eat your lunch on the dog."
• "Don't tie your kayak to the dog."

Instead, we had to use the kayak landing, which was blocked by a whole blockade of floating logs. (No, not dogs...)

It was sort of a fun puzzle to figure out how to get the logs to float out of the way without sending your kayak in the opposite direction. At first it didn't quite seem possible.

But soon we made a couple paths in, and were able to make it to shore.

I loved the big bamboo and other plants along the path to Fern Grotto.

Here's a closed one of these.

And here's an opened one.

There was a cute green lizard on the handrail.

As we neared the grotto, there were some amazingly long vines hanging down from this tree.

Fern Grotto is so named because of all the ferns that are growing on the underside of the grotto. (A "grotto" is a "small, picturesque cave").

Here's a panorama we made where people ran around to get in it again, or to take the camera from me so I could be in it.

We hung out there for 20 minutes or so, and then headed back to the kayaks.

I thought this was really pretty. And also the flower.

Linette and Sienna headed off to find the diving cliff, so Adam and I jumped in the other kayak.

The cliff that some people use for cliff jumping didn't seem very inviting, so we skipped it.

I loved going into "secret places" under the branches of trees along the shore. I was a little worried about some of the spider webs we had seen, but I figured Adam would take care of those for me. :)

As Jared and the girls neared the dock, Jared really wanted to "win" and be the first one there, so he dug in deep with his paddle and accidentally rolled his kayak.

When Adam and I arrived on the scene, I saw everyone floundering around in the water, so I asked what was up. Jared said, "Life is over!"

Apparently, his iPhone was in the zipper pocket behind his seat, and the zipper was broken, so when he rolled the kayak, his phone plopped into the river. The phone had all his amazing pictures from the day before (and its photos hadn't been backed up since June), so this was a disaster.

I had our snorkel gear in the van, so I went and got that. That made it more comfortable to dive, and the fins helped get to the bottom quicker, but visibility was about 3 inches at the surface, and it was pitch black at the bottom where we stirred up the muck looking for the phone. After reaching the bottom, I typically had about 3 seconds to randomly feel around in the muck before having to come back up for air. There were also logs down there, and I really hoped we didn't discover any fish hooks with our bare hands.

There was also a bit of a current, so we kept drifting and it was hard to know where we should search. Linette took a couple of dives, and later reported that her thought was, "This is impossible!" We had Adam send a bunch of text messages in case it would cause the phone to light up, but that was of no help. We also prayed, knowing of course that sometimes the answer isn't what you want.

The one thing that gave us a glimmer of hope was that Jared had been playing music on his phone, and it was still going! Jared and Sienna could just barely hear it if they got in the right place, so that gave us a general place to look. (I couldn't hear it, so I thought maybe my ears were too old.)

We eventually found some submerged logs that were tall enough for Linette and Sienna to stand on (supported by a kayak) so that Jared and I could use them as a reference point and quit floating off.

Still, we were at it for 40 minutes with no luck. Some other kayakers came in and we told them what we were doing, and they felt bad for us. We had Adam call the rental place to tell them why we weren't back yet, and they said it was fine to leave the kayaks and gear there after hours.

We kept wanting to give up, but thought we should keep trying as long as it was light and we could still sort of hear the phone (though it was pretty faint by this point, the speakers probably having filled with water).

I finally heard the music, too, just barely, and then knew what to listen for. I went down for yet another dive to check a random spot on the bottom, and as I scraped my fingers along the bottom, there was suddenly an iPhone solidly in my hand!

I swam straight up, iPhone first. Adam was on the shore, and saw my hand plunge out of the water holding the iPhone in victory! The other kayakers saw what happened and cheered. Everyone was so excited!!

I was so glad that nobody insisted that we give up, and we were so relieved to have Jared's phone back. We immediately turned it off (it was still faintly sputtering out music), and left it off for 36 hours while it dried out in a bag of dry rice (just in case that really helps).

We returned the kayaks on their racks and put the gear by the door where they had asked us to.

We were all still pretty stoked about the fun day at the river and waterfall, and the victorious search at the end, and we celebrated with some great "sushi burritos" and excellent teriyaki burgers at "Kenji Burger".

In our next episode, we take a boat ride up the Na Pali coast and make some new friends for Kelsi & Chase.