Day 1

Easy first 2 miles to Hanakapi’ai Beach, wide trails, no overnight permits needed. Then up and up through forested areas to Hanakoa Valley where we spent the first night. The areas to camp were damp and had tons of bugs. We took the short spur trail out to Hanakoa Falls, which was beautiful, empty, and had far fewer bugs. We spent most of our down time until evening here.

Day 2

The TERRIFYING DAY. It wasn’t long before we hit the first descent right ahead of Crawler’s Ledge - it was extremely loose ground on steep switch backs above cliffs with loud crashing waves. Then came the rounding of the corner, named Crawler’s Ledge - very skinny pathway, 2 hands on the rocks with our backpacks slowly traversing the steep cliffs around the corner. The 3rd consecutive section was another downhill switchbacks with loose ground. The rest of the day consisted of skinny paths with steep drop offs into thunderous waves. There were at least glorious views of these cliffs, the rugged coast, ocean views, and beautiful plant life.

We finally arrived at the beach and had the rest of the afternoon and evening to soak in the beauty of the beach. It was amazing to be surrounded in the sacred hills in the valley, the waterfall, a few more permanent setups, and a handful of goats. The limited number of permits meant it was not very crowded and we found an amazing spot to set up camp with idyllic ocean views.

Day 3

Awoke before sunrise to get an early start on the day, as we planned to do the full 22 miles back in one day. Started the hike with headlamps on and we got to see the sunrise over the hills onto the beach and ocean.

Scary parts were still scary and tried to remain calm in the narrow parts with drop-offs before THE scary part. Knowing we had done it (and many do it) before only helped a little. The fact that we were going up hill over the loose gravel helped a bit more. Much conversation after was on surviving and life.

We made it back to Hanakoa Valley and took our lunch at Hanakoa Falls, which was again, empty! It may have been the best part since the scary part was over and we fully relaxed in the peace of the waterfall.

We eventually made it back to the beach where we took a nice long break lying on the beach and soaking our feet in the cool river. We finally finished the last 2 miles alongside the day hikers and beach goers including some locals jogging barefoot with surfboards. We got back to the parking lot to see the sunset over that beach, ending our full day of perilous hiking.

Overall - a once in a lifetime experience (because I’m definitely not doing it again), though I would boat in if I had the chance.