1. Going to Green Sands
We had this idea. Why not drive to Green Sand beach?
Green Sand or Mahana or Papkolea beach near South Point in Ka‘u is actually the remains of a cinder cone that erupted 50,000 years ago. The ocean has worn it away, and green olivine sand covers the shore. And from that description, you should realize that we didn’t have this idea at all. It was the fair and industrious geologist beside me who reasoned that since you need a 4×4 to drive the road to South Point, and since we had a rental 4×4 Jeep at our disposal, and since it is one of two olivine beaches in the world… well why on earth not!?
It got cooler as we climbed the side of the island on the increasingly narrow Highway 11. As the road twisted and turned, it started to rain. And as the rain began to come down in earnest, the sides of the road got surprisingly steep. And then, in the rain on the edge of a precipice, Trudy discovered what the rental guy at the airport had actually told us two days before: you can go almost anywhere on the island with their Jeeps, but you aren’t allowed to drive to Green Sands beach.
There was nowhere to turn around.
2. What We Did Instead
The landscape there is bleak. The island loses the jungle feel of Kona and has more of a slag-heap look, as if a crack in the earth had opened and belched flame and flowing rock.
… Oh wait. That’s what Hawaii is.
Still, I tell you in places this was utterly forsaken land. I kept driving as Trudy studied her maps and guidebooks for an alternative plan. And of course, she found something.
There on one of the maps, although entirely unmentioned in any of the guidebooks, is Manuka State Park. We keep a lookout as we drive along. The rain has stopped, and we hope perhaps for a hike.
A mile or two after Kipahoehoe State Natural Area, where not so long ago the earth did open up and black pahoehoe did flow across the land, I went roaring past the entrance to the park. But the road was wider now, so I turned around and drove into the park and stopped beside some picnic tables.
No one else was there, except a guy in his pickup truck who looked as if he might just live there in his truck most of the time. And except there was this other guy who came walking briskly down the trail out of the forest taking great strides and making for I don’t know what because frankly I don’t remember a car in the parking lot that would have been his.
This was it. This was our substitute for Green Sand beach.