Dan and I traveled to the North Shore/Na’Pali Coast today. The trip which ends at Ke’e Beach brings you right to the edge of the Na’Pali coast and that is the end of the road, unless you want to hike for miles and miles through jungle. Not me and more on that later…
We took several detours on the way there, including a visit to The Koa Store. Here were Kauai made products from koa wood — boxes, bowls, clocks, jewelry, etc. We got a very pretty 5×7 picture frame made from koa. Then we had lunch at Brick Oven Pizza. This time we tried the white crust. I prefer it over the wheat crust I think.
Then we took a big detour to a waterfall. This fall was not easily accessible from the road for viewing like all the other ones. We had to hike down an old dirt road to a path (through a forest/jungle) to get there. 
The falls are not typical touristy places like the others because there is no parking and they don’t really show up on any guides. But the road and trail are on public/state land. The hike took only about 15 minutes, but unfortunately, I forgot the bug spray! The stream was flowing quickly, so the falls were very nice. Worth the hike and the bugs because we were the only ones there! 
We traveled on stopping at lookouts on the coastline along the way. We made our way to Kilauea and the Kilauea Lighthouse. The lighthouse area is the northern most point in the state of Hawaii. As you approach the lighthouse, off to your right is a cliff that provides spectacular ocean color, crashing waves, and strong winds. 
It was beautiful that I think we took more pictures of that than the lighthouse! Perched on the cliff were hundreds of white sea birds to add to the effect. We learned at the lighthouse the steel was made in Canton, Ohio. The lighthouse itself is not very big compared to other ones we have been too, which was a bit surprising given the scale of the coastline!
We stopped at a pull over which appeared to just be overlooking a lava outcropping into the ocean, but Dan ventured past the Dangerous – No Beach Access sign to find there was a beach. The outcropping had a few lava pools (one on top that I could see and one beachside). Seemed like a very nice beach. Around here though, the beaches generally are not swimming beaches. You have to be very careful about getting in the water with the currents and the strength of the waves. Considering there was no life guard and our guidebooks indicates the swimming was extremely hazardous at this beach, the state put up the signs.
We finally made it to the end of the road and the view up the Na’Pali coast was very beautiful. Not sure how the pics will turn out becuase the sun was setting and creating a haze over the coastline, but it was still amazing to see the cliffs.
So we have been to all the shores of Kauai and driven as far as you can both North and West.
