Day 20 Kauai - Waimea Canyon & Kokee State Park

August 11, 2022

Despite using ear spray, my son's earache hasn't improved.

After breakfast, my husband quickly goes to a small minimart a few streets away to buy onions. It's an old household remedy - onions on the ear and everything stinks - haha - and hopefully his ear will feel better soon.

So my son and I stay at home this morning. He is tired and his ear hurts, so we can't do anything in this condition. While he sleeps in bed with onion bags on his ear, I chill on the balcony, sort photos, and watch my videos from the past few days.

My husband and daughter want to go to Kiahuna Beach and rent a surfboard.

They come back for lunch and tell us that there were no waves at Kiahuna Beach today, so they went to Kalapaki Beach instead, the beach near the airport where we watched the surfers on the first day, and the surfing there was amazing.

My son is slowly feeling better, the pain medication he took this morning is working.

After lunch, we decide to visit Waimea Canyon and Kokee State Park today.

Armed with more onion bags, we set off. My son puts on his headphones and tucks the onion bag underneath. It fits, his ears are protected from the wind, so it should work today.

We drive towards Salt Pond Beach and then turn right towards Waimea Canyon. The road winds up and we stop at various lookouts like Kekaha Lookout, Niihau Lookout, until we reach the amazing Red Dirt Waterfall.

Important: In Waimea, take Road 550, the "Waimea Canyon Drive," and don't drive through Waimea as signposted and take the Kokee Road. You will then pass all the lookouts and the "red" waterfall!

At the first large parking lot with a lookout, we have to pay a $10 parking fee and a $5 fee per person. This parking ticket is then valid for all further lookouts and parking lots that we will encounter until the Kokee State Park, and at least at the first parking lot, it is meticulously checked. Since you have to enter your license plate number when buying the ticket at the machine, you can't hope to use the ticket of a departing tourist.

We take our time and drive leisurely from lookout to lookout. We really like the canyon. In our past vacations, we have been to the Grand Canyon in the USA, Kings Canyon in Australia, and Blyde River Canyon in South Africa, among others. And once again, it becomes clear: every canyon is different!!!!

I always love it when someone claims, "All islands are the same," or "If you've seen one waterfall, you've seen them all." There may be similarities, but they are definitely not all the same!

At the lookout, we see a different helicopter flying through the canyon every 5 minutes. Some fly over the canyon, while others fly almost through the canyon or really low. I'm curious to see how it will be for us tomorrow. Because we have also booked a helicopter flight for tomorrow and we are already super excited. The fact that my son now has such painful earaches dampens our anticipation a bit. Hopefully, everything will go well tomorrow...

We visit all the lookouts until we reach Kokee State Park and are really impressed by the scenery.

In the afternoon, we leave the canyon and drive back to the coast, making a quick stop at Walmart and picking up ear drops at the pharmacy, and then we head to the apartment.

Now my son gets drops in his ear, an onion on top, and now let's hope for improvement because tomorrow we want to fly in the helicopter!