Kauai has one large central mountain, Mt. Wai’ale’ale.   The dormant volcano’s interior has partly collapsed and a high jungle swampland has filled the huge caldera.   The summit is the wettest spot on earth, surrounded by sheer cliffs and impenetrable jungle.   A road climbs the drier western shores of the island to the rim of the caldera in Kokee State Park.   A few trails penetrate into the forest, but only for a short distance.   All efforts to create roads have failed.   Construction equipment has a been swallowed by the swamps, road tracks disappear, and mud discourages most exploration.

From the end of the road, a viewpoint overlooks the Na Pali Coast and  the Pihea Trail follows the rim for a short distance, but all further progress means dropping into the Alakai’i Swamp.   Trail builders have created a route through the fringe of the caldera, though difficult terrain, allowing a glimpse of the jungle, the stream valleys, the swamplands, and the pali of the North Shore.

The trail has been augmented with wooden steps covered in a wire mesh to get down the slippery slopes.   Where the trail crosses swamps, boardwalks have been added.   The jungle areas are choked with trees (ohi’a, swamp mahogany, giant tree ferns), vines, ferns, and shrubs.   Out in the open swamp, grasses stand in the still water and muck awaits a hiker if any side paths are attempted.   The end of the trail winds out to a high plateau rim overlooking the north shore.   Sunny ocean beaches can be seen 10km miles away and 4000 feet lower.   Fog rolls in and out across the orange-red pali (cliffs) and verdant valleys.

It is hard to find a blue sky/clear day in the Alakai’i Swamp.   We try to wait for a good weather report, then get an early start for the 90 minute drive to the end of the road because the clouds will move in by noon.   But, the drive and hike is always worth the effort, an 8 mile return journey into a primeval jungle-bog.

From Heart of Darkness:

“The smell of mud, of primeval mud, by Jove! was in my nostrils, the high stillness of primeval forest was before my eyes; there were shiny patches on the black creek. The moon had spread over everything a thin layer of silver—over the rank grass, over the mud, upon the wall of matted vegetation standing higher than the wall of a temple, over the great river I could see through a sombre gap glittering, glittering, as it flowed broadly by without a murmur.” (Joseph Conrad)