Secret Beach
Mom looking down at Secret Beach, also known as Kauapea Beach, on the north shore of Kauai. It is known for its size, seclusion and beauty and is located one-half mile from Kilauea near the Kilauea Lighthouse.
While work in the boatyard progressed 6 days a week, Sundays were usually reserved for a jaunt to one of Kauai’s exotic beaches and this is one of them. In the 1980’s, Secret Beach was accessed only by trekking across private property (Shakti Gawain’s) and then down a cliff on a jungle trail slippery with fallen guava fruit. Inside the jungle canopy, protected from the trade winds, the hot, still air was filled with the smell of rotting fruit and the buzz of fruit flies and mosquitoes. After the twenty-minute hike, breaking out of the jungle onto the beach and fresh sea air, was a huge relief.
The dolphins would come to play in the bay in the summertime and we could swim out to be with them. They were about eight or nine feet long with sleek silver-grey bodies of pure muscle. I remember swimming out with just my fins, mask and snorkel and feeling small and weak in comparison, yet they would swim up close and check me out, curious and playful.
The jungle path down the cliff to the beach.
