Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park is just north of Kailua Kona and south of the airport. It's a little confusing because the park visitor's center isn't really by the beach/park. You actually get to the beach by going through the marina and then following the NP signs down to the beach. But it is totally worth hunting for, it was probably our favorite beach on the big island!
Sign at the visitor's center. It's worth going there first so you can get a run-down of the different trails and specifics directions on how to get to the beach!
Once you get to the marina you park and then take a shaded trail down to the beach. The trees on the trail are teeming with these guys...
Eek! You definitely don't want to go randomly running through the woods here!
So why was this our favorite beach on the big island? Well, we liked the fact that it wasn't crowded, the waves were pretty mellow, and there was a shallow area perfect for worry-less wading (Antoine can't swim). Oh, and you know, there were sea turtles everywhere! As soon as we got down to the beach we spotted this guy making his way onto the shore...
So cool to see!! We were absolutely floored!
He was enormous! Look, he even has barnacle things growing on his shell!
We tried to be good and give him his space. It's usually recommended you stay 15-20 feet away from the turtles. But there might have been a time or two when I got a little too excited and it was more like 10 feet. Oops!
As we were making our way down the beach we quickly spotted this little guy crawling up onto the beach...
He was much smaller, but just as cute!
We left them alone for a while so they could sun themselves in peace while we explored the beach some more.
A local was there fishing and was stashing his caught fish in the shallows...look at those colors!
Making our way to the other side of the beach we just happened to pass this guy again!
Not only were there the two sea turtles on the beach sunning themselves but we spotted easily 10 to 12 turtles just swimming in the shallow waters.
Leftovers from someone's lunch.
Another turtle swimming around.
Seriously, I'm totally obsessed with this guy!
Sidenote: Antoine likes to call sea turtles "the basset hound of the sea"! Awesome, right?!
Antoine strategically posing with the first sea turtle! If you find yourself on the big island, make sure you check out this park because...sea turtles, obviously!
Since I'm on a creature roll I'll share these photos of this cute little gecko that was hanging out on the steps of the airbnb place we were staying in Kailua Kona...
Woohoo, you made it through the first half of our trip! Yes, I know how ridiculous it is that it took 7 parts to get through the big island, but it was our favorite. I still have our Oahu photos to share, so stay tuned!
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