The Green Sand Beach

Like I said before, I did a TON of research before our trip.  I purchased a Lonely Planet book (highly recommend) and found some bloggers that had some great advice.  One of the places that wasn't mentioned in the book, but I had started reading more and more about was the Green Sand Beach.  It was something we went back and forth on about visiting and I am so glad that we did!

I had been told that because we were coming from the east coast, our bodies would be waking up about 5am the first couple of days, so we decided to put this day trip as one of our first things.  So we packed up the first morning and headed out!  The highways in Hawaii are mainly 2 lane, so getting places took much longer than we were used to. (hello--everyone on 85 drives 90 MPH)

About half way there, we saw a scenic point where you can park.  Since we had arrived the day before in the late afternoon, this was our first taste of ocean!

I had printed off directions to get to the parking area by the trail head, but it was still hard to know if you were going the right way.  You turn off the highway onto an even smaller road and realize it's like driving through the country!  This was not what I was expecting, and was very neat to see a different side of something that only seems tropical!

We finally arrived and started our hike down to the beach.  Of all the hiking we did on the Big Island, Justin and I both agree, this was the best! (even though it was crazy hot and windy).

 Because Hawaii is made up of volcanoes, an eruption many years ago left a cinder cone with three sides remaining and the fourth side open to the ocean.  The olivine crystals that were created from the eruption gives the beach its green color.  The beach is located on the southern tip of the island and to gain access, you have to hike about 2 miles there and back.  

From here, we headed to the southern most point!