After a number of days dodging rainstorms, I was looking forward to seeing the sunny side of Kauai. I made the long trip half way around the island (about a 45 minute drive) down to Salt Pond Park on a Sunday afternoon. Well I blessed my lucky stars that I didn’t schedule a Friday or Saturday night at this place because it was party city. Sunday afternoon was still pretty busy, party-wise, but things finally simmered down in the late evening as families packed up their celebrations and went home to rest up for the coming workweek.
Salt Pond was a pretty nice little spot with a nice sandy beach and a nice calm surf (something hard to find in Kauai this time of year). Like just about every Hawaiian campground I came across, you were expected to park your car far away from your tent. I suppose this is all part of their efforts at discouraging long-term campers, but I found it a bit unnerving to park in dark isolated places late a night without being able to stay near your car. I had a dream sleeping here about repeated car crashes down the road from my office in a city office building only to wake up and realize I was listening to the sound of the surf crashing just meters from my tent. I think I slept closer to the crashing surf here than anywhere else. High tide must have just missed me by ten feet or so.