The Sleeping Giant is the name given to a smallish mountainous ridge on the east side of Kaua'i Island, just west of the town of Wailua and north of the Wailua River. Its name is supposedly suggests the profile of a sleeping giant, derived from Kaua'i islander mythology. The official name of this little ridge is Nonou, or Nounou, both spellings that seem to appear evenly. I am not sure which is more correct. Beth and I were on Kaua'i Island as part of a 10-day trip to Hawai'i. We'd be spending three full days on Kaua'i, then a travel day to the Big Island, then four full days there before flying home. My mother was hosting us at the Poipu Beach resort, so my sister, brother and his family were there, too. I had never been to Kaua'i before. Beth had, but always on business and not in a long time.

We landed late on July 1st, and were looking for something easy and enjoyable to do the next day, given we were both jet-lagged and tired. Many guidebooks suggest Nounou as a fun day hike. It seems to me to be one of a very few set of peaks that are hikable on Kaua'i Island. The trail is short and moderately steep and only requires a couple hours at a slow pace. From Poipu to Wailua, the drive took us about an hour. We followed Haleilio Road off of Highway 56 (second light north of the bridge over the Wailua River), and drove up through residential lots to a small parking area at the trailhead. All parking spots were taken, suggesting this is a popular day hike for the locals.

The highpoint of Kaua'i Island (and the county, which includes the Ni'ihau Island off the coast) is Kawaikini, which is situated dead center on the island. Once a mighty volcano much like those on the Big Island, Kawaikini is now a nearly inaccessible peak, nearly permanently hidden by clouds, and surrounded by miles of cliffs and knife-edge ridges. The few non-cliff approaches to Kawaikini are high-elevation swamp. A nearby sub-peak, Waiale'ale, is the rainiest spot on the planet, with a yearly average of over 450 inches. I had no intention of trying my luck with Kawaikini. For those who think they might be up for the challenge, read this amazing tale: Click here (2.7 Mb). The remaining mountains on Kaua'i are essentially ridges emanating off of Kawaikini.

For us wimps, Nounou is a nice consolation. Its elevation is "just" 1,241 feet above sea level, but you can see all 1,241 feet as the sea is just a couple miles to the east. We followed an excellent dirt trail up the east side. Sometimes steep, but never too bad. The views alternated between ocean views, some of the town below, and of far-off ridges. Once atop the main ridge, it followed the spine through dense forest, composed of all sorts of foliage I had never seen in person before. Shortly, the trail comes to a picnic table and ramada on top of a grassy subpeak. From here, we descended down to a saddle just below the summit.

From here the trail became extremely narrow, and rocky in places. We literally had about two feet of error-room unless we wanted to go for a ride down the slopes. The final short scetion required some hand-over-hand scrambling up some minorly-exposed rock. Shortly we were at the top. It had taken us about 90 minutes to cover the mile-plus, with just over 1,000 feet of gain. It was warm, and quite humid, but a nice breeze helped cool us off. We took our victory photos and had a snack on the summit. I checked out Kawaikini ... figuring this is as close as I'll get to it. We spent a little while up here, then started down. The hike down went well, enlivened by some careful downclimbing of the rock. Within an hour we were back to our car. It was a very enjoyable half-day hike and one I recommend highly. We made a mainlander mistake: we both got pretty sunburnt from the tropical sun even in this short excursion.

For our remaining two days, we made driving tours up Waimea Canyon and an incredible hike out Na Pali Coast, then flew onto the Big Island for, among other things, an ascent of Mauna Kea and a day out on the lava at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.