Hamakua Coast Scenic Drive

The Hamakua Coast scenic drive is the big island’s version of the Road to Hana. It is a 45 mile stretch of road beginning in Hilo and ending at Waipio Valley. It is one of those infamous twisty-turny roads, with one lane bridges, hairpin turns, and unbelievable scenery. 

We checked out of the Marriott in Waikoloa Village in the morning to begin our 75 mile journey across the northern part of the island and down the Hamakua Coast, ending in Hilo and spending our last night on the island at Castle Hilo. We had all ready visited Waipio Valley and the very northern part of Highway 19, which is the name of the road that lines the coast. Our first stop was Laupahoehoe Point, which is located betweem mile marker 27 & 28 on the ocean side of the road. There is a turn off that will lead you one mile down a switchback road from the top of the cliff down to the coast.  Although there is camping available here, no swimming is allowed. 

Most of the coastline looks like the photo above, with black, sometimes jagged lava rock making up the beach. The contrast between the black rock and the deep blues of the ocean is absolutely stunning.

Watching the waves crash into the rocky outcroppings and witnessing the different color changes in the water as the waves formed and rolled in was mesmerizing. We spent a good hour here, exploring the shoreline, taking pictures and simply watching the waves. It was another hot day, but the park had trees and areas of shade where we could retreat to when we needed a break from the sun.

In this picture notice how high the cliffs are, it will be relevant to a later story. Highway 19 is up on the cliff, this is where you end up if you take the turn off. You can also see the homes built right up on the edge of the cliffs. Some of the homes looked like they could tumble down the side of the cliff at any moment.

You can clearly see why this is not a swimming beach; however, there are areas where the waves don’t reach if you go at low tide. My daughter found the tide pools and was bringing some type of critter to her brother so they could discuss what it might be. I don’t remember what conclusion they reached before returning the little guy back to his home.

I’m pretty sure my son will never outgrow the need to climb any rock that he sees. I will give him credit, he is very observant and picked a spot where he would not get soaking wet…and where I would not feel the need to issue a warning about waves sucking him out into the ocean.

I know for a fact that these two will never stop searching for animals, no matter where our trips lead. I was very happy that at least, on this trip, no one would be pointing out snakes to me. Fun fact, there are no snakes on the island. I know this because I googled poisonous snakes in Hawaii and was delighted and surprised to find out that they have no snakes, at all.

I spent my time waiting for waves like this one to come crashing into the shore. Of all the places we visited, this beach had the best water show. I also spent my time positioning my kids on rocks trying to time a picture with a wave crashing in the background. They were very patient with me, as the waves never wanted to cooperate. They saw this one crash and agreed to try one more time standing in front of this area.

The waves just taunted me. They stood there for five minutes and this is the best we got. They said it was hard to stand there with their backs to the ocean because the water was so loud it felt like it was going to wash over them. I assured them that we were getting very minimal wave action.

Of course, as soon as they turned around there was one relatively decent wave. They decided to give it another few minutes.

At this point I just started laughing. A decent size wave crashed in over to their left in a spot that had no waves for the past 15 minutes. Tired of standing in the blazing sun, my daughter offered to Photoshop themselves in front of the wave and we all headed for some shade. This was our favorite location on the scenic drive.

We got back in the car and started slowly driving back up the switchback road when the tsunami siren warning went off. My husband hit the gas and after about 15 seconds of panic I calmed down and told him he had to slow down. He looked at me like I had lost my mind and my kids said, “Don’t slow down!” I said, “We can’t see around any of these turns, if we hit a car we are going to have to try and run up this cliff without a car. We will not out run it.” He begrudingly slowed down at the turns. Strangely enough, I was the calmest one in the car and I said, “Doesn’t the ocean get pulled back away from the shore before a tsunami hits?” My son said, “Yes.” I said, “Watch the ocean and tell your dad if it receeds.” Then I said to my husband, “If it receeds, go as fast as you can with out driving us over the cliff.” Everyone felt better since we had a plan, who knows if it would have worked, but we had a plan. Then I said, “It’s the first Monday of the month.” My husband said, “So?” I said, “Wisconsin tests its tornado sirens the first Tuesday of every month, maybe this is their test day.” It was. One thing I did not think to research was what day does Hawaii test their tsunami warning system. There is no worse feeling in the world than to be down in a valley with your children and have that alarm go off. The alarm finally turned off and our heart rates returned to normal by the time we got to the top of the cliff and back on Highway 19.

After surviving our tsunami drill, the crazy twists and turns of the highway didn’t seem so threatening. The picture above is not someone’s driveway, it is a section of Highway 19. If you need to get somewhere using Highway 19 be sure to allow yourself plenty of time. It is definitely not a ‘highway’ in this Chicago native’s mind. There are always spots to pull over near the one lane bridges. We stopped here to check out the waterfall on the left side of the road.

Our next stop was Kolekole Park, which is located on the mountainside of the road between mile markers 14 & 15. The park has some small waterfalls, a swimming hole and a vine filled forest. It was a nice little park, but if you are short on time, skip it. Wailuku River State Park is much more impressive. We spent about 10 minutes here before moving on.

We saw a sign for another beach that wasn’t on our planned itinerary and decided to follow the dirt road down to the beach. It was full of very deep ruts and we really should not have been driving down there, but by the time we realized the condition of the road there was nowhere to turn around until you made it to the bottom. I don’t even know the name of the beach, but it doesn’t matter because I would not recommend driving a rental car down there. We found out this is a surfing beach and we spent a half an hour or so watching the surfers before we moved along.

Next we checked out the 4 mile scenic road, between mile marker 7 & 8, that leads to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, which we would be visiting on our final day in Hawaii. With our road trip complete, we went in search of the little yellow house that we were told had the best smoothies on the island. We were delighted with the smoothies, all fresh ingredients, the best that we had during our stay. To make it easier for you, I will provide you with the name of the ‘little yellow house’ that we went hunting for, knowing only it was a yellow house and located on Old Mamalahoa Hwy. It is called What’s Shakin’ Smoothies. They also serve lunch, which was wonderful because we were starving by the time we got there.

There are many other spots to stop along Highway 19. We had all ready seen Onomea Bay, Akaka Falls State Park and Waipio Valley, everyone one of those is worth visiting. I am glad that we had split up seeing everything that Highway 19 has to offer. It would have been too much to try and cram them all in in one day. Another reason why spending a few days in Hilo is a great choice. As always, wishing you happy travels and fantastic adventures in this thing called life.

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