We woke up to a beautiful morning, with mostly clear skies. We expected clouds after 10, so we left our cottage by 8 and headed toward the west coast and up into the mountains. We stopped at the Waimea Canyon overlook, punctuated by Waipo’o Falls, a beautiful double 800’ waterfall. Our next stop was at the Kalalau Lookout overlooking a Na Pali canyon. It was stunning! We drove a little further to the end of the road, to the Pu’u O Kila Lookout, another stunning Na Pali canyon.
We drove back down the mountains, and had Porky’s special for lunch, in Waimea, sitting under the Captain James Cook statue, commemorating Captain Cook’s nearby landing in January 1778. He was the first European to sight the Hawaiian Islands. We crossed the Waimea River and walked around the ruins of Russian built (1817) Fort Elizabeth State Park. A few miles down the road we stopped in Hanapepe, an old Japanese settled town, with a hanging bridge. We walked across the bridge and back. A bit scary!
We saw lots more chickens today and read about them on a history sign at Kalalau Lookout. The local folklore is that Hurricanes Iniki (1992) and Iowa (1982) destroyed coops, letting the chickens loose. Some say the escaped domesticated birds joined up with jungle fowl brought by Polynesians 1000 years ago. National Geographic published an article about the chickens in 2018, reporting that genetic studies indicated the folklore was correct. The wild chickens are everywhere!
