During our time in Princeville, Becky found a description of a beach that was called Pu’u Poa. The descriptions on the web and what we did don’t match up very well, so I am convinced we actually went to Hideaways Beach and not Pu’u Poa. There is a tiny parking lot (on the right) off of Ka Haku Rd just before you come to the gatehouse for the Princeville Resort Kauai. We managed to find a parking place both times we went there. There is a narrow trail that goes initially between the fences of two other resorts – beaches in Hawaii are publicly accessible, but that doesn’t mean the approaches are easy. Getting to Hideaways Beach would not be easy from the resorts anyway. The narrow trail becomes first a fairly easy stair with stout metal handrails, then it becomes a very steep, rough, sort of stair-like downhill scramble, with ropes attached to metal posts for support – most people would be reluctant to go down this slope without the ropes. I have been up and down slopes like this several times before on the Alakai Swamp trail, but Jack initially said he couldn’t do it.
Becky went on down to the beach while I tried to convince Jack he could do it. A couple of teenage girls passed us, and told Jack it wasn’t that hard – that convinced him to try it, and once he got going, he figured out it wasn’t that hard after all. I kept telling him to go backwards, and that going down was a lot harder than coming up. We got past the steep part, and soon came to the beach.
This is a narrow, secluded beach, less than 100 yards wide, but with beautiful sand, plenty of shade, and surf that was not that bad. Some views of the beach:
Past Hideaways to the west is Hanalei Bay, but the small beach is not really accessible from the ocean without a kayak or a boogie board. Most people don't come that way. The other direction is sheer sea cliffs as well.
We were able to snorkel, and the fish diversity was surprisingly good for an area with sand and rock but not much coral. There were lots of convict tangs, bluefin trevallys, bird wrasses and saddle wrasses, and several Picasso triggerfishes (humu’humu’nuku’nuku’apua’a). I think we also saw brassy chubs. There were some sea cucumbers as well.
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