By:
Submission
Partly spared by recent lava flows, the public boat ramp is gone, but the beach has live coast guards, a risky break, picnic areas, and lovely hot freshwater ponds where folks can enjoy naturally heated pools.
Cool to see the black sand beach but it is really difficult to walk towards the beach. There's rocks of different sizes. Waves are rough not good for swimming.
It’s a miracle that the hot springs here weren’t covered with the recent lava flows- I was so excited to visit and was not let down. You will drive through a few sections of the lava and it’s crazy to see the destruction and how quickly it shifts from lush forest to barren lava rock.
The drive here is pretty lengthy, but for 3 different pools of hot springs, it was worth it. The water in the hottest was crystal clear though shallow - hotter than a hot tub but not boiling. The others were a little bit cooler but a bit murkier with one having a dock and getting deeper.
The beach is right there too but it’s not something I would swim in. Big waves, and not sand along the shoreline - just big loose lava rocks. It was such a cool sound to hear the waves rolling the rocks down into the surf. Beach is huge and mostly empty, more sandy back away from the waves.
Beautiful and rugged. It was really lovely to experience the cool ocean a few steps away from the hot springs. There aren’t signs marking the springs, but if you go along the tree line near the boat launch, you’ll find them. They were silent in a beautiful, surreal kind of way.
A few things to keep in mind:
- The walk from the parking lot to the black sand beach involves a short scramble over large (up to basketball sized), rounded lava rocks. This can be fun, but would be tricky for anyone with mobility issues (or a toddler).
- If you opt to use your car GPS instead of Google Maps, double check the route. Our car GPS took us via a route that was decimated in the 2018 eruption and we had to backtrack.
