| We decided to take a trip to South Point (white line). It was still raining and South Point offered the best opportunity to find sun. We were also looking for a sand beach as most of the shorelines we'd seen so far were extremely rocky and very uninviting for swimming. We'd heard there was a sand beach called the Green Sand Beach at South Point and we wanted to try and find it (green line by car, blue line by foot). After South Point, we were going to go up to Ray & Ellen's house, two friends who live and work on Oahu, but have a house just south of Captain Cook. They wanted us to go and spend the night there to make sure the house was OK as they hadn't been there in several weeks. CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE |
| Extremely hard-packed sand over lava. The debris under the Jeep shows that the ocean gets up that high. We'd traded in the Wrangler for a Grand Cherokee. Much spiffier! |
| Not a tree in sight. How did this log get here and where did it come from? |
| Sunset from Ray's house |
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| I thought this was some kind of a wind-break for camping but someone told me later that is was an old pen for goats. |
| More weird terrain |
| Our first glimpse of Green Sand Beach |
| Green Sand Beach. We had hoped to go swimming. The trip down looked do-able but we weren't looking forward to getting back out again! |
| Just one hell of a rock formation |
| Green sand |
| More coral. What's going on here? |
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| This is South Point, the southernmost land in the United States, about even with the middle of Mexico. I'm told that the wooden structures you see here were used to hoist cattle from ships moored below. South Point is a very barren windswept point of land with some of the weirdest landforms I've seen. It was a long way, a couple of miles, from South Point to the Green Sand Beach over rugged terrain so we drove our rental Jeep most of the way, stopping when we saw something interesting, then finally parking it and we walking the rest of the way. For exercise, not because the Jeep couldn't make it! |
| We encountered this guy at South Point. He was just sitting there minding his own business so I didn't bother him. I don't even know if he was alive. I just took his picture and left him to his own devices. |
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| Friday, March 17, 2006 |
Day 11, South Point
| What do you suppose made these hole? This is on the butte above Green Sand Beach |
| Same location. This is a shelf of coral that has been undercut by something |
| The walk back to the Jeep |
| How'd this get here? |
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