Makalawena

Beaches on the island of Hawai'i seem to be few and far between, especially when compared to other islands in the state. This is the youngest island and a good deal of the coastline is lava that has not yet had time to break down into sand; and a few really nice beaches can be incredibly hard to get to...thank god for the demon and Makoto's daredevil sensibility!




Makalawena is one such beach...if you have a 4 wheel drive (with very good undercarriage clearance) you can drive 15+ minutes over the intense lava rock moguls (again-check your fillings), park at the coastline and take the very short walk to this most remarkable piece of earth. You can also hoof it for 20 minutes-over a'a lava (the sharp kind)-from the state park on the other side of the beach.
This place is completely worth the effort it takes to get there. You're greeted by tall pines for shade, gobs of soft, white sand and clear ocean water in ten shades of blue.









The beach backs up to private land and there is a caretaker who lives in a shack just behind the beach. We're not sure if he's a caretaker for the private land , paid by the state or just another one of those ain't-seen-a-bath hippees! but after sunset, he will come ask you what you're up to since you're not supposed to be there at that time. Other then that, the place is very isolated and you'll probably have the entire place to yourself-like we did. The only neighbors we had that afternoon were green sea turtles in the surf, a whale breaching on the horizon, the beach rooster and a few of the local partridge called grey francolin......









As the sun was setting we were treated to colors that rivaled those in the Hudson Valley.
Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.