Sightseeing: beach parks on Kalaniana'ole Avenue

We needed an excuse to have ice cream so we took a little bicycle tour of the beach parks east of Hilo, which are supposed to be some of the most popular in the area. We also wanted to see if we agreed with the comments in the book, Hawaii Revealed.

1-Keaukaha. Was it a “tent and tarp city” to be avoided? Yup.

The upside-down state flag indicates distress or dissatisfaction with the government. There are people here who would like their independence from the USA and return to a Hawaiian monarchy.

2-Onekahakaha Beach Park. Boulder-lined, sand bottom, well-protected from ocean waves, lots of kids. And no wonder, a perfect place for families. Since it was Saturday, almost all of the pavilions were having birthday parties.

This little girl maintained this pose for the longest time, not quite ready to “dive” in. Finally her sister took her hand and they stepped down into ankle-deep water.

This park is also home to several horseshoe pitching clubs: beautifully well-maintained.

3-Kealoha. Would we get the “stink eye” from “young toughs“? No. Access was climbing over rocks, the swimming was challenging in my opinion, but I’m a chicken.

4- Carlsmith Beach Park. We missed this one, there is no apparent sign out at the road. In fact we only knew it was there after we saw this sign in the parking lot on the other side (to the right on the sign) of Mauna Loa Shores condos.

Hawaii Revealed says this is another way to get to Carlsmith Beach Park. Since there was no place to lock up our bikes, we didn’t venture down the jungly paths.

5-Wai’olena. Not crowded at all and totally picturesque. To the west, a rocky shore.

These guys carried spear guns into the water. 

To the east, the inviting grassy areas reach into the clear water.  See the guy in the background to the right? 

A happy water Buddha.

6-Wai’uli. Equally beautiful and very busy, but we were able to find a table to have our picnic. Richardson Ocean Park/Center is also here, but we didn’t explore - eating lunch and heading for ice cream motivated us.

This is the end of the Kalaniani’ole Avenue and the end of the official beach parks although there’s a very rutted dirt road that continued on but didn’t look especially inviting to us.

Time for our reward - yippee! We’ve been on an ice cream kick lately and have tried three nearby places, but that will be another blog post.

Whew!  This was a long blog post.  Maybe too long?