Kalalau Valley
Kalalau Valley is quite simply one of the most beautiful and interesting places on Earth. It’s an exquisite, tropical wilderness nestled away in Kauai’s Na Pali Coast State Park. With a gorgeous mile-long beach, sea caves, a waterfall and pools, lush vegetation, beautiful “sky-scraping” cliffs, and numerous fruit baring trees, Kalalau Valley is one of the most famous and beloved locations in all of Hawaii.
Visiting Kalalau Valley
Kalalau Valley can be experienced by land (on foot), sea (by boat or kayak) and air (by helicopter). Of these, the most spectacular and intimate Kalalau experience it is on foot. Every year hundreds of visitors hike into Kalalau Valley – but it’s no easy task. To get there on foot you must take the Hawaiian adventure known as Kalalau Trail. It’s an arduous 11-mile trek that involves crossing streams, slippery rocks, muddy paths, multiple switchbacks and a few dangerously narrow, cliff-side paths. Once there, you get to experience several days of camping in this isolated, tropical paradise.
Visiting by boat or helicopter are also great ways to experience Kalalau Valley. You won’t get to enjoy exploring the valley’s many treasures up close, but you will have an opportunity for some amazing photos. There is one exception to this and that’s if you kayak your way to Kalalau Valley. Kayak landings on Kalalau Beach are allowed, but you’ll need a permit. You’ll also need a camping permit if you plan to stay at the beach overnight.
If you don’t take the difficult hike or see it by boat or helicopter, there is one other way to experience this Kauai treasure – by driving up to Kalalau Lookout. At an elevation of 4,000 feet this cliff side view offers an excellent opportunity to view Kalalau’s beauty from afar – and an opportunity for some more great pictures. In fact, photos for calendars, magazines, posters and advertisements have been taken countless times from Kalalau Lookout.
Kalalau Valley’s Interesting History of Inhabitants
Although no one permanently lives in modern day Kalalau, over the years, naked hippies, poi-pounding Polynesians, a hermit doctor, and a gun-toting leper have called this hard-to-get-to valley “home”.
The Native Hawaiians of Kalalau Valley
The original people to live in Kalalau Valley were, of course, the native Hawaiians. Their main source of food came from growing taro crops.
The months from July to April were fishing season. During this time, all the people would go down to the beach and camp in the caves. A spotter would position himself over Hoolea Falls and alert the fishermen down below when there was a school of fish nearby. The fishermen would then rush out into the sea with canoes, surround the fish with a net, then drag them back to shore.
As Western influence spread through the islands, life began to change at Kalalau Valley. In the 1800s missionaries established a Church and there was even a school built there. In the early 1900s, although the people were still living in pili grass houses and using their traditional tools like stone poi pounders, they had begun to wear Western style clothing as well as use modern tools like metal knives, axes and fishhooks. Their small community lived in Kalalau Valley as late as 1919, when the last inhabitants finally left for more modern cities such as Lihue.
Koolau the Leper
In the 1930s, a leper named Koolau was picked up by authorities to be sent to a leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai – without his wife and little boy. Well Koolau was having none of that. He jumped ship and escaped to Kalalau Valley for refuge. The sheriff and National Guard went after him, but he picked out a good spot from which to defend himself. He shot the sheriff and chased off the National Guard. Koolau lived in Kalalau with his wife and son until he died from his disease.
The Hermit of Kalalau
The man known as the “Hermit of Kalalau”, lived here in the 1950s and 60s. He was a physician from the U.S. Virgin Islands named Dr. Bernard Wheatley. Apparently he became fed up with civilized people so he took up residence within a sea cave on Kalalau Beach and lived off the land. He stayed there completely alone… that is until the hippies decided to join him.
The Hippies of Kalalau Valley
In the late 1960s and early 70s, the valley became a favorite gathering place for hippies. Back then, hippies were going to all the islands in search of places to live off the land. Some of them naturally made their way to Kalalau Valley. Many of these hippies considered clothing optional and often times went nude. As more and more came, they began to cramp the “Hermit’s” lifestyle of solitude. Dr. Wheatley left Kalalau in 1969, after living there by himself for six years. But hippies continued to come. By the end of the 1970s, there were dozens of hippies living off the land in the valley. During the summer months there were up to and over 100 hippies. During these times, it became somewhat commonplace for hikers to encounter naked hippies out picking fruit or bathing in the waterfalls.
In 1980 the Division of State Parks got control of the situation. People are no longer allowed to live in Kalalau Valley and no one is allowed to camp there for more than 5 nights. Camping permits are required and only a few are issued each day. Up until recently, boat landings were allowed with a permit, but they are now prohibited. But you can still land kayaks on the beach – with a permit of course.
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July 31st, 2010 at 9:38 pm
I knew PhD Wheatley. I with my sister and best friend
leased The Rice Mill restaurant from Larry and Ginny Ching. I was one of those hippie surfers. In fact I and some of my friends are in the first surfer magazine pictures ever on Kauai. Bernard stayed on Kauai after leaving Kalalau and he would be seen walking over the bridge between Hanalei and Kiluea. He enjoyed visiting with Red Burkholtz at the Bounty, Red’s house in Hanalei. The first time I met PHD Wheatley I was by myself around Honokaa about six miles in. He was coming out and warned me not to eat Gauva seeds. He said he had done so a few weeks earlier and it locked him up. A few weeks later Jeff and I borrowed Molokai Joe’s gun and shot a goat above the dry cave in Kalalau. We used some of Bernard’s salt to cure the hide. I replaced what I had borrowed a few weeks later. This was in 69. Before the hippie migration and the Taylor Camp. We also were friends with John Hana Hana Pa of Wainiha who was the last person born in Kalalau. The Robinson family who own Niihau have run cattle there and in Lumahai Valley. It’s hard to see the foundations of a once thriving Hawaiian community bcause cattle love gauva and gauva trees have overgrown the valley floor. Kieth and his cowboys will rope you if you get caught on their property. Kieths all right once you get to know him..He never caught me at Pakala( infinities)! But he sure has caught a lot of my friends. $ 25 fine and the loss of your surfboard. I wonder if PHD Wheatley found what he was looking for. He reminded me of Henry David Thoreau but in the Garden of Eden not a cold east coast lake. I wonder if Bernard had an Emerson.