My cousin (Autumn), my wife (Cynthia), and myself (Lucas) started the Sleeping Giant Trail at a yellow gate off of Kumo’o road. In the book “The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook” (very useful and a must have in our opinion) states the trail is moderately difficult but steep!
The first mile and a half was very easy. It was relatively flat with a nice long bridge and good tree coverage for a shaded hike. We saw well over a dozen chickens crowing their okole off (“butt” in hawaiian lol). The next mile was almost all uphill with a couple switchbacks and great views! Little berries that came from the Lilikoi tree covered the ground and ranged in colors from yellow to red, they smelled like a grape infused with beer. Along the trail we met several really nice people ranging in ethnicity and age, a few locals as well as travelers.
We reached a point of the trail that we thought was the top it had picnic tables and a shelter which opened up to a nice open spot with a great view to the left of Kapa’a! We took a short break and continued up the trail to the giants face which was only another quarter mile or so. The last hundred feet was us scrambling up a couple rock faces and then it opened up to a 360 degree view of most of the east coast!
The Guidebook had a pretty accurate description of the trail being steep and moderately difficult at times. We spent a total of 4 hours hiking 5.9 miles round trip, every step was completely worth it.
As of now we are in awe about how green and beautiful this island is, we love the people and how active you can be on the island. We will continue to write about more hikes and adventures we plan of doing! 🙂
Life's Next Adventures 