Kaua'i March 2008

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Saturday - Waimea Canyon

The far end of drive took us up into the mountains to around 3000ft elevation, and into a beautiful canyon that runs along the west side of the island. It looks at lot like Bryce in Utah, except that so much of it is filled in with lush green plants. The views were incredible, and this is where I really gave the Sigma 80-400mm lens a good workout. The top end of the canyon road reaches a lookout over the valleys of the Na Pali coast. Unfortunately, while we were there the valley was completely full of clouds/fog, so we couldn't see any of it.

c080329-121818 — the start of the canyon on our drive in

c080329-125934 — we saw a few of these pretty wildflowers with multi-colored blooms like this

c080329-132608 — same wildflower, mostly orange this time

pano080329-01 — panoramic view from Waimea Canyon lookout. this view covers nearly 180 degrees. you can't quite see the waterfall in the low-res pic, but it's near the left side of the frame

c080329-130358 — view from the Waimea Canyon lookout

pano080329-02 — another panorama from the Waimea Canyon lookout. this is from the second overlook seen in the far right of the first pano

c080329-131126 — Waipo'o Falls, you can see both the upper and lower falls at this angle

c080329-131556 — Waipo'o Falls is about 800 ft from top to bottom

c080329-131704 — part of the Waimea river carves its way along

c080329-131748 — it's all so green inside

c080329-131838 — detail of the riverbed, far below us

c080329-134106 — view from Pu'u Hinahina lookout

c080329-134154 — another view from Pu'u Hinahina

pano080329-03 — panoramic view from Pu'u Hinahina lookout

c080329-134330 — Dad, Mon and Keliie in the canyon

c080329-134410 — Charles and Kellie in the canyon

c080329-134610 — yes, the chickens even manage to live up here in the canyon areas, too.

c080329-140756 — nice wildflowers, some sort of lily family I think

c080329-140926 — the big ferns at the Napali lookout had lots of blue spores on them, and this one was opening a new stalk

c080329-141032 — bee on a wildflower

c080329-143502 — lower part of Waipo'o Falls as seen from the Pu'u Ka Pele lookout

c080329-143524 — Waipo'o falls. from this angle you can see the upper section is set back in the valley from the lower (top not pictured off the top left side)

c080329-143548 — one last view from Pu'u Ka Pele lookout

c080329-151754 — sugar cane along the road on our drive back

c080329-152838 — only in Hawaii ...

c080329-163532 — King Kong's profile, as we got closer to the house again

Dad's shot from Waimea Canyon lookout

Dad's other shot looks like it's just left of the previous

Dad's shot down to the river valley