hawaii waterfalls, Robert Winter, kauai travel tips

Kauai Adventures: Tips from an insider

In my book, Dust in the Wind: Real FEMA Disaster Stories, you get insider information about visiting the most beautiful of #Kauaidestinations, The Sleeping Giant. I share a little secret about that mountain… the cave, the small plateau, how to adventure to one of the most impressive views imaginable. Here on my website, I plan to share other adventures with you so that you can go and enjoy them yourselves! It is so important to do these things in life. If you’re going all the way to Kauai, you might as well get insider tips on seeing it all. (If you want to know the secret about The Sleeping Giant, you have to buy my book. Ha!)

Here, I’m going to tell you about two beautiful natural spots— you’ve seen them in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park, and now you get to see them in person yourselves!

hawaii waterfalls

Wailua River – The only navigable river in all of the Hawaiian Islands, this exists because of its fortuitous location at the base of a large mountain that happens to be the official wettest spot on earth. It rains on the mist-covered top of this peak every day, and those waters feed what are known as the Seven Sisters. These are the seven waterfalls that tumble down the sheer sides of the ridges and slopes. Several of them culminate in the Wailua. I spent many enjoyable hours waterskiing this pretty stretch of water, and when you take a boat ride up to Fern Grotto, you’ll recognize places captured in movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park among others. It also has a fantastic rope swing just past the Fern Grotto.

fern grotto, Robert Winter

 

Fern Grotto – This is a naturally occurring amphitheater that is covered with a veil of native ferns. Dangling down from the ceiling and enhancing the acoustics of the grotto, this spot is popular with many visitors. Bill Gates got married there and the place is home to many feral cats as well as loads of wild chickens.

 

And speaking of chickens, here is another insider tidbit: Chickens – I know this sounds like an odd must see item in Kauai, but the island actually has more chickens per square mile than almost anywhere else on the entire planet. In my years of living there, I saw tens of thousands of chickens, and a lot of people are actually quite charmed by the mother hens that walk their cheeping little chicks up to strangers in order to get a handout.

 

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