Come Watch Body Surfing Sunbathing Hawaiian sea turtles at one of the Big Island black sand beaches!There are new black sand beaches forming all the time. Your best bet for spotting a "new" black sand beach is Hawaii Volcanoes National Park .
If you want to walk on black sand, Punalu’u Harbor Beach Park has the most easily accessible one. This beach was created when hot lava flowed into the cold ocean and shattered into small pieces. The waves finished the job by pulverizing the small pieces into black sand. This beach is quite interesting. Turtles nest and lay their eggs here. They frolic in the water and when they get tired they body surf to shore. Then they come up onto the beach to sunbathe. Sunbathing turtles?? OK, you’re right. I don’t know if turtles actually sunbathe but that’s what it looks like to me.  Notice how my husband is not touching the Hawaiian sea turtle? Trust me--he really wanted to. The Honu (Hawaiian sea turtles) are on the endangered species list. It is against the law to touch or harass them in any way. Besides, if people bother them too much, they'll choose to frolic on more secluded beaches and we where won't get to see them! We saw a fisherman cast his net from the beach to catch fish. How’s that for a fresh fish dinner? I don’t know because he didn’t invite me over but I can imagine it was quite tasty! This is an interesting place to swim. There are freshwater springs bubbling cold water to the surface. If you look closely you can see the layers (fresh water on top, salt water on bottom). We saw something like this in Mexico. Anyway, the water was too cold and rough for me. If you do choose to swim here, be careful. Stay close to shore and be on the watch for rip currents. If the surf looks rough, stay out of the water. My favorite rule of thumb all of the beaches in Hawaii is if no one else is in the water, find out why! We were on a mission to get to the volcano before dark so we didn’t stay long. But it looks like a great place to hang out. There is a fresh water pond and palm trees. You can see ruins of a heiau and a flat sacrificial stone at the northern end of the beach near the boat ramp. It is about 27 miles south of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on Highway 11 between mile markers 55 and 56. Return from Black Sand Beaches to Exploring Hawaii
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