Hanakapiai Falls Trail On Kauai, Hawaii: MASSIVE Waterfall

Hanakapiai Falls Trail is one of the most popular hikes on Kauai. It leads you to the first part of the Kalalau towards Hanakpiai Beach before heading inwards along the Hankapiai Stream towards the booming 300ft+ Hankapiai Waterfall in the depths of the jungle.

The Hanakpiai Falls Trail is 5 miles in and 5 miles out. However, many hikers stop at the beach and turn back, opting to hike only to the beach and not the falls. This makes the journey only 2 miles in and 2 miles out.

I hiked all over Kauai for over a month and documented all of my adventures. In my opinion, these are the 15 best hikes on Kauai!

Hanakapiai Falls Trail map

The Hankapiai Falls Trailhead is the same as the Kalalau Trailhead, which is one of the top hikes on the North Shore of Kauai. At the ‘end of the road’, which is as far as you can possibly drive north on Kauai is Ke’e Beach. This is the starting point for the trail. There are toilets, drinking fountains, changing rooms, and parking lots. It can be hard to find a park so be prepared to walk a distance from your park to the trailhead.

The trailhead is heavily signposted and begins right next to the lifeguard tower. Following the trail is simple and there are no hidden turns or opportunities to get lost. Once you reach Hanakapiai Beach after 2 miles you are halfway into the hike. You then simply follow the path inland on the right-hand side of the Hanakapiai Stream. This path is less defined but still very easy to follow. You will need to cross the stream a few times before you reach the amphitheater, where you will find Hanakapiai Waterfall crashing into the pool below.

Hanakapiai Falls Trail Important Info

I visited back in early 2018 but as of late 2018, there is a fee required to hike this trail. There are a few options offered.

• The fee for entrance is $5 (not including parking) but must be booked well in advance. Unfortunately, sometimes the permits are sold out a month in advance.
• The shuttle entry permit is another type of permit that allows you to park away from the entrance and take a shuttle into the park entrance. This is much more expensive at $35 (as of 2021) and you must adhere to a specific timing schedule.
• The final option is to buy a permit including parking but you will need to purchase multiple time slots in order to complete the hike in enough time to Hanakapiai Falls.

Having tourists take the shuttle is the preferred option of the locals and the park management but is also an expensive hike. You will need to visit their FAQ Page for more info to decide how you will approach this hike and also what price you are willing to pay to visit the waterfall.

Hanakapiai Falls Trail

The trail begins with an incline and it never really lets you relax from that point onward. Slippery mud, boulders, and tree roots are just a few of the obstacles you will encounter on the winding path that switches back and forth as it leads you along the Na Pali coast. The Hanakapiai Falls Trail isn’t a stroll in the park.

My favorite part of the stretch from Ke’e Beach to Hankapiai Beach is the red rock path and how it contrasts dramatically with the striking blue of the Pacific Ocean far below. When you add the vivid greens from the jungle and the deep sky blue into this scene you have a vibrant palette painting an incredible scene replicated in a few places around the world. If you get a chance, a helicopter flight over this coastline has to be on your bucket list, it’s truly incredible.

Once we reached Hanakpiai Beach, we took a seat on a boulder and watched the crazy mess out in the ocean. Signs are plastered all over this beach about not swimming. It seriously looks like a disaster waiting to happen so I’d definitely cool off your feet in the shallows or the stream but this isn’t a beach you want to go swim in if the waves are coming in.

Refreshing break over, we began the next 2-mile segment of the Hanakpiai Falls Trail along the Hankapiai Stream. This section of the trail gets significantly muddier and leads you through amazing bamboo forests and back and forth across the stream. It also got a lot colder as we ventured further and further inland. You may want to bring a waterproof jacket. I used the waterproof cover on my backpack to protect my gear from the light rain and mist that hit as we neared the waterfall.

We had been making slow progress. Our group was taking a lot of photographs and long breaks but we reached the Hanakapiai Waterfall after three hours. You could probably reach the falls in under two hours quite easily if you went straight through without stopping.

Finally, we had arrived at the waterfall. It is a 300ft booming shower that seems to fall out of the sky into the emerald pool below. The water was freezing but most of us jumped in for a dip. I explored a small ledge to the left of the ledge, where I was able to snap some photos with an awesome perspective of the amphitheater. This is a truly magical spot and one of the best waterfalls on Kauai.

The hike back was a bit of a mission especially as we climbed back up the steep red rock in the latter parts of the trail. We arrived back to Ke’e Beach after almost 6 hours of adventures. This is one of my favorite memories from my trip on Kauai and highly recommend this hike for anyone visiting, especially if you are not hiking the Kalalau Trail. The Hanakapiai Falls Trail will give you a good taste of the Na Pali coast without the full-blown experience of the Kalalau Trail.