Nounou Mountain Trail – Pissing off the Giant – Kauai

Day 3 of my vacation to Kauai I decided to drive south to try and get out of the constant rain. The day before we had success escaping the rain of Princeville by going south to go to the beach near Kapa'a so I thought I would try the same thing to get a hike in. I was halfway successful in I had no rain going up but coming down I got caught in a pretty good squall. The red clay of the islands is very slick when wet and I had fun trying not to fall on my butt on the way down.

I originally intended to hike the famed 11 mile Kalalau Trail along the Na Pali Coast as an overnight but admit that the sound of the treacherous cliff side trail and slick conditions that were no doubt present had scared me off. Who wants to hike in the rain anyhow?

The Nounou trail is 2 miles to the top and is about 1200 feet elevation gain. It was a very hot (to this Washington boy) 80 degrees on the way up. All the books and web pages with info on this trail talk about how dangerous it is to go to the very top of Nounou due to a treacherous climber's path and steep drop-offs. When you get to almost the top there is a nice picnic shelter to get you out of the rain and there are 2 tables. There is also a viewpoint with a nice bench. I decided to go to the top past the picnic area despite the warnings. I saw some others at the top so I thought I would try my luck. I was pleased that the "climbers path" was very easy to hike with only a very short little scramble area and found you would need to be very careless to fall off the edge. I guess the warnings were more for tourists than folks that hike a lot. I stopped often with my new camera to take pictures. On the way down It rained pretty hard making the trail slippery. I managed to not slip and fall on my butt, but just barely. On the way home I stopped at Taco Bell for some shrimp tacos, very yummy! I also pulled over to try and get some pictures of the cattle egrets that frequent the sides of the road.

Stock photo - Profile of the Giant

 

Pano from top of Sleeping Giant - NouNou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Hiker on chin of the Sleeping Giant

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Rain Squall coming in - Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Top of Sleeping Giant - Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Pano from Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Pano from Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Kapa'a from Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Sleeping Giant Nounou Trail

Mmmm, shrimp tacos. Bubba would be proud.

Kauai

cattle egret

cattle egret

cattle egret

cattle egret

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4 thoughts on “Nounou Mountain Trail – Pissing off the Giant – Kauai

  • September 6, 2012 at 2:33 pm
    Permalink

    Thanks for the vicarious hike! Glad you posted that!

    Reply
    • September 6, 2012 at 2:47 pm
      Permalink

      Your’e very welcome Uncle Tim! As I was standing at the edge of the mountain that day, I had a great desire to use the bathroom, so I did. Thus the title, Pissing off the mountain was borne. (True story, LOL)

      Reply
  • September 6, 2012 at 3:12 pm
    Permalink

    Good stuff, man.

    Reply
    • September 6, 2012 at 3:14 pm
      Permalink

      Hey thanks Chris!

      Reply

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