Nā Pali Coast, Kauai

The Nā Pali Coast runs along roughly 17 miles (27 km) of Kauai's northwest shore, on Hawaii's oldest main island. Its name, Nā Pali, simply means "the cliffs" in Hawaiian — an apt one, since razor-edged ridges of volcanic basalt rise almost straight out of the Pacific, carved into deep vertical flutes by millions of years of rain and stream erosion eating down the softer seams between harder rock. At their tallest, the cliffs climb to close to 4,000 feet (1,200 m) above the water, with a handful of narrow, hanging valleys — Kalalau, Honopū and Hanakāpīʻai among them — cut into the coastline at intervals.

No road has ever reached this stretch of coast, and the terrain rules one out entirely. The only way in on foot is the Kalalau Trail, an 11-mile (18 km) clifftop route regarded as one of the most demanding day-or-overnight hikes in the United States, crossing several exposed ledges and stream fords that can turn impassable after heavy rain. Most visitors instead see the coast from the water, on a boat or kayak tour out of Kauai's south shore, or from the air on a helicopter tour — the vantage this photograph was taken from.

The shot looks back at the coast from just offshore, a narrow beach and a band of green forest sitting beneath the folded, sunlit ridgelines. As a jigsaw, it breaks into clear working sections: the flat blue sky and its single drifting cloud go first, the ridged cliff face — repetitive but with enough individual peaks and shadow lines to stay readable — comes next, and the turquoise water in the foreground, flecked with small waves, makes a calm, forgiving section to finish on.