A Day at the Beach

 We decided to go to a beach.  Not a black sand beach, or a green sand beach, or a lava beach, but just a plain white sand Hawaiian beach like the advertisements.  But there are none in the South East corner of the Big Island, so we drove over to the North West corner.

We drove across the Saddle Road, between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, but instead of turning South on 190 to go to Kona, we went North, thru Waikoloa Village to the coast.  

We noticed as we drove towards the coast that the land was mostly lava, but older rocks, broken up by scrub brush, not obvious lava flows.


As we drove towards the coast, we saw a massive solar farm. 


Just row after row of solar panels all pointing to the rising sun in the East. When we came back, we noticed that the panels had all rotated (well, all except for a handful whose motors are apparently broken) so that they pointed to the afternoon sun in the West.  So this was not just passive panels panels placed out in the sun, but panels that operated to try to maximize their output.

When we got to the coast we were near Hapuna Beach State Park.


But that was very crowded.  In addition, although there were no signs indicating that there was a charge for the park, or for parking, there was a person in a somewhat official uniform demanding money for admission and parking, which seemed like a scam, so we were uncomfortable there.

What little I understand about Hawaii and its beaches is something called public beach access — the beaches are owned by the state and anyone can use them.  Oregon has a similar situation.  So even tho there are big hotels and resorts built right out to the coast, the actual beaches are open to all.  Looking at the Google maps, we saw a beach just North of Hapuna that is marked as Mauna Kea Beach (public), so we headed up there.  This beach is accessed thru the Mauna Kea Golf Course.  At the guard station, we said we were going to the beach and they gave us a chit to take down the road to the parking area for the beach and feed into the machine that opened the gate to let us park.  A short walk down the golf cart path brought us to the beach.


which was pretty much what we had been looking for: a white sand beach that stretched from a set of lava rocks on one end to another set of lava rocks on the other.


The surf was very active — waves coming in and back out.  We waded in the water, and watched members of the crowd.  Walked from one end of the beach to the other.  Ate lunch.

And then we drove back home.  A lot of driving for a couple of hours at the beach.


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