Editor Pick
Black Sand Beach in Wai'anapanapa State Park
- January 29, 2007
- Rated 5 of 5 by
reddove113 from Mililani, Hawaii
Inside Wai'anapanapa State Park lies a black sand beach open to the public.
Park in paved parking lots. There is a ranger station. A pay phone is available. Garbage bins and recycling bins are available. Port-a-potties and campsites or cabins are available. Camping is with prior received permit only.
The black sand beach is not wheelchair accessible. Those with problems walking up and down stairs will have difficulty. It begins with a steep paved walkway to the stairs. There are only a few handrails.
The sand is coarse and the beach abounds with larger black, smooth, round stones becoming smaller stones, becoming pebbles, and then becoming sand type granules. The beach is surrounded by lava rocks and lava rock cliff fronts. There are big lava rocks in the sand. The size of the beach is roughly 150 feet in length so it's not very big.
There is a lava tube immediately to the right at the base of the stairs you can access. It is not the pathway to the beach; you hit the beach at the bottom of the stairs. This is a little extra treat! You must bend down to access but once inside, it is above 6 feet in height and leads to the ocean. Be sure to watch for the tide so you don't get trapped.
Caves are accessible in different areas. You will climb down and up steep rock steps, no officially built steps with handrails. Caves are filled with pools of water. You cannot walk in the caves because of the pools and the pools are not deep enough to snorkel or dive into. Watch for spider bites and bug bites. The insects are not very evident and you'll be bitten before you know it. The caves are very worth the walk though.
Ancient lava rock-lined cemeteries lie here. Ancient Hawaiian spirits remain here. Do not remove any rocks from the cemeteries, the caves, the beaches, or anywhere on the Hawaiian Islands, as a matter of fact. People who have taken rocks and stones from any of the Hawaiian Islands are said to have grave bad luck fall quickly upon them. Park rangers even receive packages containing rocks, sent through the mail by people who have taken rocks home...because of the bad luck that has fallen upon them. The rocks are then returned by the rangers to the park.
From journal Weekend Getaway on the Island of Maui, Hawaii