Kalapanapictures below my recommendation: Kehena Beach is worth a visit if you are into those kinds of beaches, nice hike to newest black sand beach if you are already in area. Not worth a special trip if you are coming from outside of Puna. Kalapana was a Hawaiian fishing village until it and Royal Gardens subdivision were inundated by lava in 1990. Most unfortunately, the entire area including a fantastic black sand beach were decimated.
Today, there is a turnaround area where you can park and get lunch, and sometimes there is a local family selling Hawaiian crafts in the area. At the turnaround, if you climb up the lava towards the ocean you can take a short (15 minutes one way) but hot and windy hike out to the newest black sand beach on the island. You won't be able to swim but it's neat to see. Notice the coconut trees. Residents started hiking out baby coconuts and placing them in the sand to grow. In 50 years that area will be a prized beach with fantastic shade. Directions: Head south on Highway 130. Around the 19 milemarker you will want to take a left on a little bypass to Hwy 137. Take a right for the turnaround, a left for Kehena.   In the grove of trees to the left of this satellite dish in the middle of the lava field is a house and yard that was spared  Kehena Beach is just a few miles Kapoho side of Kalapana, near an area sometimes called Kaimu. You can't see it from the road but all the cars parked on the side will tip you off when you've reached it.  Ocean view in the Kalapana area  This is the upslope of the hike to the ocean at the Kalapana turnaround  My husband packing our boy in front of a really neat crack in the lava on the hike to the ocean  The newest black sand beach The following pictures are from past the dead end at 130. Skip this and go to the turnaround where the above pictures were taken.  This sign says: Restricted Access. Residents and Property Owners Only. All others keep out. The lava came and covered the property, but it still exists and people still live back there. This sign is at the deadend of Hwy 130 into the lava field. Take a left onto Hwy 137 before you get here, there's nothing to see back this way anymore anyway. The lava flow was closer to this side a few years ago but now it has migrated back towards the national park side.  This is past the sign - islands of Highway surrounded by oceans of old lava.  I though this was neat - let's say these fence posts were 4 feet high. Only about a foot of them are sticking up above the lava - so this part of Kalapana was raised three feet.  This is another house that was spared, but this one is a little harder to get to - this is about a mile in over old lava.  again, this is from when the lava flow was over on the Kalapana side. These days (nov 05) it has moved back over to the National Park side. |
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