Besides the two Na Pali lookouts at the end of the paved highway, Koke‘e State Park is the starting point for almost 50 miles of outstanding hiking trails. Some lead to perilous clifftop eyries, others inland to the woods overlooking Waimea Canyon, and yet more into the Alaka‘i Swamp, home to Hawaii's largest surviving concentration of native bird species.
Not only is the swamp inhospitable to exotic species, but mosquitoes, which transmit avian diseases, have never thrived here thanks to its high elevation. Ancient Hawaiians never established a permanent settlement in these chilly highlands. They only ventured here to collect feathers from forest birds and cut koa trees for canoes, using a precipitous and long-vanished trail that ran down the mountain ridges into Kalalau Valley.
