Sunday Photo: Black Sand Beach
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Black Sand Beach from Above
Originally uploaded by webnelly
As a reminder of, and almost a tribute to, how the magical islands of Hawaii were created, the black sand beaches found on her islands are made up of harden lava that has entered the ocean and has been eroded over hundreds and thousands of years into tiny grains of sand.
This black sand beach is from Wai'anapanapa State Park, which can be found along the Road to Hana. It is also accompanied by a series of caves along the shore of the beach, which as legend has it, was where the Hawaiian Princess Popoalaea would come to hide. She was hiding from her cruel husband, Chief Kakae, who eventually discovered her hiding spot and took her life. As a result, there are certain times of the year where the water here turns an eerie red color due to tiny red shrimp that wash up towards the beach. The red water is said to symbolize the blood of Princess Popoalaea.
The beach itself is rather amazing. While we were only there for about 15 minutes as part of a guided tour, I remember the look and the feel of the sand to be almost like a regular beach (maybe a little coarser), with footprints being washed away by the waves and the usual. There was just some part of my mind that still had a hard time grasping that this was actually a beach, and the sand was black. We'd seen pictures and read about it, but now that we were standing there, it seemed surreal.
Be sure to check it out if you haven't yet seen one. And if you've been, let us know your thoughts.
Labels: beaches, photos, SundayPhotos
posted by Kris Nelson at
11:31 AM
1 Comments:
I just returned fron Hawaii not quite 3 weeks ago. We visited this beach during our trip to Hana, and it was a very nice beach. The mention that this is a very young black sand beach is true---- most of what is on the beach is NOT sand, but what I'd call river rock, small rounded stones. There is a small patch of actual sand, but the majority of the beach could be best nicknamed "Pebble Beach". I didn't immerse myself in the waters there, but I had to get a bit wet to say I was there, and while standing in the shoreline surf, my feet were pelted by the "black sand". I'm so glad I wore my water shoes to that beach, or else I'd never be able to walk on it in my bare feet. Nevertheless Waianapanapa Beach is a beautiful, picturesque beach not to be missed stop when on Maui's Road to Hana.
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