Wai'anapanapa State Park Black Sand Beach Visit

On the Road to Hana and Mile Maker 32 you need to have reservations in order to enter the park. Reservations are available in 2.5 hour time slots throughout the day. It is $5 per person plus a $10 entry fee if you are driving a vehicle. Reservations are available 30 days in advance of your desired visit day and must be made at least one day in advance. They do sell out so I would book as soon as you can. At the park they had a lava tube and a blow hole in addition to the iconic black sand beach. There were porta potties and rinse off stations available. Beach is a bit tight, tighter when the tide is in. There as a lot of smooth rocks which were painful on the feet, especially when trying to get in/out of the water, if you have water shoes, here is a good place to wear them. The water was a bit rough so be careful to those who are not good swimmers. You can hike up to the blow hole which overlooks the beach. When the waves come in, it travels up the lava rock and sprays viewers, that was fun. We had a great time here and spent the whole allotted time here. If you can’t get a reservation or forgot to and happen to be traveling to The Big Island there are additional black sand beaches there.

This park is absolutely stunning 🤩 We camped here for 3 nights and the views from the park never get old! The only downfall for us was the shower house and bathrooms were out of order. Since we were camping, this had a pretty big impact on our level of comfort. This is a beautiful place to visit but next time we will likely camp elsewhere. We did enjoy the camp kitties though!

Reserve ahead!! $15 per pay period of ~2 hours. The two hour period is more than enough to see everything, the park is extremely small, even if you take pictures for 1 hour. Black sand beach, a lava tube, and blowhole are all within the park. Cellular can be in and out of the way down there, the most cellular is available directly at the entrance if you have AT&T. Make sure to screenshot your reservation or have a PDF of it. They have cats here too, which are super sweet.

Black sand beach Before you go: ONLINE RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED! With that said, I highly recommend! This is not one to miss. This state park is gorgeous! The black sand varies from superfine to small pebbles and eventually smooth rocks. There is a small hike nearby once you walk across the beach. It has some neat rock formations and pleasant plants. The crashing waves makes the area sound incredible. Seriously, an amazing experience.

Black Sand, caves, blow holes. So much to see. We didn’t make use of our whole 3 hour window so make sure to do so if you want to finish the hike. Beautiful park to walk around.