Our second morning was spent visiting several lava rock beaches in Hilo. My husband and son are avid reef tank enthusiasts and wanted to check out the tide pools at low tide. I don’t even know the name of the first beach we went to, we saw it as we were driving past Liliuokalani Park and Gardens and decided to stop. I learned two things very quickly that morning. First, lava rock is difficult to navigate and it is extremely slippery when wet. In fact, I would have ended up in the ocean on at least four occasions had my husband and son not taken turns catching me before I slipped right in. I did mention in a previous post that I had packed an entire suitcase full of shoes. One would think I would have had appropriate footwear. I thought I had appropriate footwear, but as my husband always tells me, I have a habit of picking ‘form over function’. He warned me when I bought them, mentioned something about the lack of tread, I mentioned that I found them in the ‘hiking sandals’ section and they were Merrell’s, so they must be good, and did I mention how cute they were?
Slippery when wet!!! Lava Rock Beach in Hilo, Hawaii
After my fourth near dip into the ocean I admitted my shoe choice was woefully inadequate and we were going to have to stop back at the hotel so I could put on my hiking boots before we ventured out to the other lava rock beaches. This beach with an unknown name was a little gem. My kids and husband, in their ‘function over form’ sandals had no trouble navigating the rocks and had a blast searching for critters on the rocks and in the water. The second thing I learned was the super cool looking ‘weeping pine tree’ that looked like a cross between a pine tree and a weeping willow and left needles all over the place was to be avoided. The pine needles on the ground were like little hypodermic needles, if they slid into your sandal, “OUCH” if you sat on one “OUCH”! I, of course, repeatedly did both.
So many cool trees on the island! Watch out for the needles on this one!
Next up was Richardson Beach Park. This beach does have swimming areas. We had a helicopter ride that morning so we were planning on climbing around on the lava rock to search out sea life until we had to head to the airport. There was so much to do here. If you are looking for a black sand beach, this is one of them. It is one of the best places to snorkel on this side of the island. The beach is open from 7am-7pm, with lifeguards on duty during those hours. There are restrooms, showers and free parking. It is also connected to Leleiwi Park, you can walk to it, which is a great place for spotting turtles.
The deep blues of the ocean contrasting against the black rock is stunning. (Richardson Beach Park, Hilo, Hawaii)
To the right of the parking lot is the beach, the left has a path that leads to huge piles of lava rock, which comprises the shoreline and is filled with tide pools during low tide.
My son enjoying the view at Richardson Beach Park in Hilo, Hawaii
We had meant to stop at a few more beaches before our flight, but we found so much to explore here that we chose to stay. If you are following along on our itinerary, you will notice that we did not stick to the script for day 2. After a leisurely breakfast at Ken’s House of Pancakes, which we frequented often, we had a couple of hours before our flight, so we decided to spend our free time wandering the beaches that we were planning on frequenting the following day. The pluses of Ken’s House of Pancakes were: huge menu (everyone will find something they want to eat), very generous portions, (you could easily split an order between two people), friendly staff (I delighted our waitress with my horrific attempts at speaking the few words I had memorized in Hawaiian, or ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi, if I am being accurate. In between her fits of laughing, she would try to help me pronounce things correctly, I would make my best effort, she would laugh and we would try again. Eventually, I would give up and say, “We can try again tomorrow.”), and they are open 24 hours. The minuses were no matter how hard we tried we could not manage to get our breakfast bill under $60 (probably would have happened at other locations as well, it was just an eye opener that I definitely had not budgeted enough money for food), and I do not believe the interior has been updated since the 70’s (that made no difference to us, but when you walk in, if you don’t know, you may get a bad impression and walk out). The great thing about the beaches is they were all free! Which was a very good thing, because we needed our money for food. Next up will be our helicopter ride over an active volcano. Adventure, laughing and a wee bit of vomit in that story! As always, wishing you happy travels and fantastic adventures in this thing called life.
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Richardson Beach Park in Hilo, Hawaii
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