Photos 3, page 12
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Green Sand Beach @ Road to the Sea
| March 10, 2007 |
| Ray called us in the morning and wanted to know if we wanted to 4-wheel down the Road to the Sea to the Green Sand Robin and I drove over (white line) and we met up at the top of the road where we all piled into our Jeep and headed down the Road to the Sea (yellow line), a 4-wheel-drive road through the lava field straight down the hill to the (can you guess?) ocean! I was driving so the pictures can be sparse in places. We were in 4-wheel-drive low range for the whole trip... CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE |
 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Close-up of the trip down the hill and to the Green Sand Beach (yellow line) and our route after that at the bottom (purple line). This was serious 4-wheel-drive territory, as you'll see... |
| In the right-hand map, you can see a false start coming off the left side of the main road. We got out to check out this ravine that cut across our path. We could see the road on the other side, but no way to get to it so we had to backtrack and find another way. I found out later this road was known as "Fool's Road". |
| We're attempting to get to those two mounds you see. In the foreground you can see a'a lava - very nasty stuff. It is loose and sharp and almost impossible to walk or drive on. |
| Robin and the others found it was more comfortable to get out and walk rather than getting jounced around in the Jeep. The Jeep wasn't going more than walking pace anyway. You can see that the "road" was OK in some places, pretty decent in other places, and downright nasty in other places. |
| Ray would guide me over the rocks so that I wouldn't tear things off the bottom of the Jeep. The Jeep did really good! |
| We finally got around that hump above and, sure enough, there was a green sand beach! |
| We all went swimming. The surf was pretty heavy and I tired quickly so I got out and took pictures. This is a sequence of Robin and Ray in the water as a wave comes in. It might not look like much that ocean is certainly powerful! |
| Ray and Ellen. Aren't they cute? No, that's not a dead body on the beach, that's a girl sunbathing. You can see in the background that there are others camping here. |
| See that little patch of beach over there? We're going over to check it out (purple line on the map). |
 | |  | |  |