- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- home style today articles
- home style today q&a
- traveling today articles
- traveling today q&a
- message boards
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
 |
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Hawaii's Green Sand Beach
Don't Adjust Your Sunglasses, the Sand Really Is Green!
By Jenn Director Knudsen
The hidden beach is an extremely peaceful place; the only sounds heard are winds that whip up to 30 miles per hour and the ocean's fierce crest and crash. Very few tread here – for good reason.
Kitchen says perhaps 3,000 people from all over the world each year venture to this spot. That boils down to around 10 people on any given day making their way to Green Sand Beach. Many people hike the 2 1/4-mile "trail" to the beach at Mahana Bay, but you also can drive there. Just be sure you're in a 4WD equipped with hardy shocks.
"It's not a friendly road, that's for sure, by any means," Kitchen says of the only route to the beach. "A lot of people aren't really prepared. They don't die," he says, laughing, referring to those who hoof it. "They just get sunburned and dehydrated."
Like my husband and I did.
We followed the advice of our trusty guidebook Hawaii The Big Island Revealed (Wizard Publications, Inc., 2006) by Andrew Doughty. It suggested we park our wimpy rental toward the poorly marked head of the trail that the book swears is just over 2 miles away. ("Many readers have written to say we're way off on that distance," the author writes. "We promise, we're not. We've checked it by car odometer and on foot with GPS.")
We,too, began to doubt the cocksure author mere minutes into our trek. Fortunately, we donned proper low-slung hiking shoes. But we'd brought only a scant water supply and had slathered ourselves in a threateningly thin layer of sunscreen.
