Hiking the West Sleeping Giant Trail (Nounou) on Kauaʻi
Distance: 2.2 miles / 3.5 km
Elevation Gain: ~760 ft. / 232 m
The West Sleeping Giant Trail is definitely the easier and my favorite of the two trailheads to reach Nounou Mountain.
East vs. West Sleeping Giant Trail (Nounou)
If you’re trying to decide which trail is right for, I hope this clears things up.
The East Sleeping Giant Trail is the harder of the two trailheads to hike Nounou. It’s longer, there’s more elevation gain, and there’s one additional area that requires some scrambling/ climbing that the west trailhead doesn’t have.
However, the West Sleeping Giant Trail will almost always be muddier after the area has rained recently. Even still, I like the West Nounou Trail more because I personally think it’s prettier.
West Sleeping Giant Trailhead Parking
Parking for the West Sleeping Giant Trail is located at the very end of Lokelani Road in Wailua.
Google Maps Directions: West Sleeping Giant Trailhead
Hiking the West Sleeping Giant Trail
The West Nounou Trail starts out a flat open path between some houses before entering into the forest. If you’re going to hike Sleeping Giant for sunrise, please be quiet and respectful around the houses in the neighborhood.
Once the trail gets into the forest, expect the hike to be much muddier or as dry as the photos you see here.
Nounou-Kuamoʻo Trail Junction
When the Nounou Trail meets the Kuamoʻo Trail, go left up the the hill through the Cook Pine trees.
The Kuamoʻo Trail is a hike for a different day.
East-West Sleeping Giant Junction
Eventually, the west trail meets up with the trail coming up from the east side. Go right at this split to reach Nounou.
This shelter should be shortly after the junction, and it’s a good indicator if you’re in the right direction or not.
The trail continues straight across the open clearing in the photo above.
The sections leading up to the summit ridge require some scrambling to make it up to the best viewpoint, but as long as you take your time, there are plenty of good points of contact to do it safely.
Sunrise on Nounou
Sunrise on Sleeping Giant is actually better on the ridge line leading up to the summit than the summit itself which has a better view to the west than the east.
Puʻu Nounou
The Sleeping Giant summit is about 1,241 ft. or 378 m.
The trail makes for such a great east Kauaʻi sunrise hike because there’s nothing else obstructing the view on nearly every side of the mountain!
Native Plants on the Sleeping Giant Trail
Since Sleeping Giant is such a low-elevation mountain filled with invasive species, there isn’t a lot in terms of native plants on the trail. The only ones that I noticed on the hike up were ʻUhaloa and ʻAʻaliʻi.
While there are better trails to see more native Hawaiian plants, you can check out my separate post to learn more about these and other species from different areas and trails from across the islands. I wrote this post to help others ID plants while adventuring around Hawaiʻi.
Read My Separate Post: Native Hawaiian Plant Guide
