You can actually touch it. The southern most point in the USA, that is. Vast sea cliffs, rolling surf, boating, fishing, hiking to Green Sand Beach, warm trade winds are all reasons to make a point of stopping at South Point.

Location: Hwy 11 to South point road after mile markers 69 & 70

Green Sand Beach

Off to the East of the boat ramp down at South Point, there is a trail leading to the very rare, very beautiful Green Sand Beach. It is quite a hike, at about 2 1/2 miles each way, but well worth the effort. Who knows? You may find a real olivine gem... I did.

Location: follow directions to South Point find above mentioned trail

This a a very nice drive the the most southern tip in the U.S. The drive from the main belt highway to the South Point lookout is very long but very scenic. It will probably take you about 20 minutes to reach the lookout point. There is no sandy beach here, only a cliff area that drops off into the deep ocean. This is a popular fishing sight for large fish such as ulua and papio. You can also catch smaller fish and there are a lot of aweoweo at night. I wouldn't recommend swimming here because it is very deep and there are very strong currents. The only way to reach the beach is to climb down ladders since it is very steep. On very calm mornings, we used to swim at the left side of the beach and hang on to ropes and bouys to stay near the cliffs. If you feel like hiking, you can hike 2 miles south along the coast to Green Sand Beach which is a very scenic beach that looks like a partial crater on the beach. This sand at this beach contains a lot of olivine which makes the beach look green.

South Point is the southernmost point in the entire United States, so we HAD to go there. How can one visit Hawaii and NOT go there? (It's a traveling thingy for us...)

To get there, take South Point Rd from Highway 11 (between mile markers 69/70). This is a narrow road, and sometimes you wonder if you're on the "right" one, but face it, there aren't any others... so it's right. When you face oncoming cars, one of you must pull over, but it's fairly easy to do.

On the way you'll pass a wind farm. If your windows are up, put them down for a tad and listen. The sound the windmills make is different, and neat, though I'm not sure I'd want to live near them and hear it all the time! The wind makes some of the trees grow strangely too, so keep your eyes out and you'll see them on your way.

After 4 miles (or so) you'll reach a fork in the road - stay right. Soon you'll reach a parking area with lots of people at it. If it's a day like we were there, you'll also see youngsters (and a few oldsters) jumping from the cliff into the sea below. My boys wanted to. Dad didn't want to go with them (Mom either) so they left disappointed. Other tourists were joining in. There's a shaky looking ladder to climb back up.

There were also fishermen there, and general picnickers. Beware though—this ISN'T the southernmost point. To reach that, head to your left (looking at the water) past a spot where ancient Hawaiians tied their canoes (looking at that along the way), and follow a rock wall as it gently goes down into the ocean. That's the TRUE south point. When we were there, someone had written (in coral) both an arrow pointing the direction to go, and the words "You are Here" when you finally got there. Quite a nice tip, and confirmed by the guidebook.

The view from here is amazing... and we spent a bit of time walking around and reflecting of exactly where we were on the globe at this point in time. (Another travel thingy!) If you have time, go there; if for nothing else other than just to say you've been! It's free.

South Point (Ka Lae) is at the end of an 11 mile road, due south from the Mamalahoa Highway (Hwy 11) turning off between the Ocean View Estate and Wai’ohinu (home of the descendant of Mark Twain’s Monkey Pod tree). This has been the southernmost point of the United States since 1959, when Hawai’i became the 50th state, taking over the crown from Key West, which is still the Southernmost point of Continental USA.

The road passes fertile farmland, orange and macadamia groves before opening out onto barren grassland dotted with the exaggerated forms of windswept trees. On the right as you travel down, you pass a small wind turbine farm as the constant winds are ideal for generating a lot of wind energy and then an abandoned US Military base used for tracking missiles from the US mainland. If you follow the tarmac road right to the end, you will find that it abruptly disappears off the edge of the cliff as the constant pounding of the waves has reclaimed this part of the coast.

Backtrack a little and you will find steel and wooden ladders descending right over the side of the cliffs down to fishing boats moored below. Much as you might be tempted, don’t use them as a launching point into the sea as the currents are treacherous and the next stop is Antarctica. It is after all called the Halaea Current, named after a Hawai’ian chief who was carried away to his death! Further round the cliffs drop away into a rocky beach where, if you look carefully, you can see ancient pictoglyphs carved into some of the rocks that submerge under water as the tide comes in, at what could be the actual spot of the first landings of Polynesians on the Hawai’ian Islands from their home islands to the south.

There is evidence of human activity here from as early as A.D. 200, such as a large fish pool and the remains of the fishing settlement of Waiahukuni and some heiaus (temples).

A short distance from here is the private car park for the Green Sands Beach.

The nearest town to here is Na’alehu, the southernmost community in the USA! Pretty much every business in this town advertises itself as the southernmost this or that. It is a quiet if religious town (there are six churches for a population of just over 1,000 souls), but is a useful pitstop for petrol and groceries. The best things nearing to attractions in Na’alehu are the ‘Southernmost Community’ sign for photo ops in the centre of town and the fantastic Punalu’u Bakeshop which does great snacks like the ‘local’ Portuguese Malasada pastries. There is an idyllic little garden in which to enjoy these treats, as well as some historical murals to admire.

This is the Ka`u District and is probably the Big Island's most remote area. It had been a thriving sugar plantation community until the mill closed a couple of years ago. Now it consists of farming land, rugged coastal areas, hills, mountain slopes, dry upland forests and lava deserts.

The constant winds here make it an ideal place for generating energy by windmills, too. Stop and listen to the eerie sound they make. You'll see a bunch of windblown trees in this area, too.

Then go to the end of the road (11 miles off from the main highway) to Ka Lae, and marvel at the boat launch facilities high up on the cliff. The currents here are strong and snorkeling is not recommended, even though it looks so inviting. We were told that if you got into the current, you'ld end up in the south pole! Also by this point, you'll come across a road that disappears into the ocean. Fairly recent lava flows have reclaimed the land there.

A short distance from here is a pull off for Green Sands Beach where green olivine mineral is mixed with black and gray sand from the eroded lava, so the sand is a gray-green. It's quite a hike and very remote. There was a "tourist" parking lot set up by the trailhead where someone wanted to charge us $5 to "watch" our vehicle. I had heard about this scam and was not comfortable leaving our rental there without paying, yet didn't want to reward a scammer, either. So I bought a post card of Green Sands Beach instead.

This area is probably least what I expected to find in hawaii! Which made it even more fascinating.