Hawaii 2021 - Day 5

 This Way...To The Beach?


If this doesn't look like a promising path to one of Hawaii's terrific beaches, that is a worthy, but incorrect, statement. But, this is the middle of the story.

It's Friday, the midway point of our stay on the Big Island. Like some of the days, there was no planning. Many people, I know you are out there, would be driven nuts by not having a laid out, time-managed plan of where you were going and when. Our plan was simple, we're driving toward the north side of the island, past the airport we arrived at at the beginning of the week. There was a vague sense of a destination, one that involved a beach at a state park. 

Soon, we were heading down a road that looked like something out of Mad Max. It was only a mile long, but the Moon would be an improvement over the craggy rock, sudden drop-offs, and twisting gnarly turns of this so-called road. Anything over 3 MPH was a sure ticket to a broken shock absorber or significant tire damage. "Welcome to our State Park. We spent ZERO dollars on road access." would be an appropriate sign to greet each visitor. The journey ends at a "parking lot" that enjoyed equal improvement as the road, and a 200 yard trail to a beach. This one.


 Well, now the road makes sense. To have a beach this lovely without half of the Hawaiian humanity visiting it, just make the access painfully difficult. Lovely beach, with good snorkeling, some locals spearfishing (to be found at a local farmer's market tomorrow), people relaxing under large palm trees. Beautiful. Hidden in this picture is a monk seal, a relatively rare and endangered species. Can you find it?

Keep looking

A little more

Don't give up

Are you still trying?

Okay, fine, here's a blow-up


The seal has his own space, cordoned off by rope and attended to by a volunteer to make sure the seal, which isn't doing anything more exciting than catching some zzzz's, is bothered by crazy people. It's tough to tell, but that is a 900 pound seal. 


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