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 The Island of Hawaii is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There are 266 miles of shoreline to explore and the active volcano, Kilauea is constantly adding more land and coastline to the island. The Island of Hawaii is a perfect place to discover how beaches are formed, and how marine ecosystems work.
As the hot lava from the volcano pours into the ocean, the lava cools and small grains of volcanic glass and cinders are produced. This creates the black sand beaches on the island. The air and rain gradually turns the sand to brown or gray.
Some beaches actually have green sand! This comes from a green mineral found in volcanic rock called olivine. The iron from Hawaii’s red cinder and red clay soils gives some beaches a reddish color. The crumbled skeletons of marine animals such as coral cause a white sand. On the Island of Hawaii you can make a sand castle in a rainbow of colors!
There are many types of marine life to be found among the beaches. In the
tide pools it is fun to explore for shells, sea snails, crabs, urchins, and sea plants.
On a hot summer day it is great fun to snorkel just off shore among the coral reef. The water is alive with many colored fish and green sea turtles.
Being on the beach in Hawaii - feeling the warm sand between your toes and the soft caress of a fragrant breeze as you watch the irresistible curl of a perfect wave - tends to push thoughts of serious scientific research to the far right side of the brain.
Kailua Beach Park, Oahu
Fringed with trees and backed by steep green hills, this 1/4-mile beach-front park is part of a 2 1/4-mile crescent of fine white sand that defines the edge of Kailua Bay. With plenty of shady grass and picnic facilities, the beach is popular with locals. By mid-afternoon on weekends, the irresistible fragrance of barbecue is wafting over the crowded parking lot. With sheltered waters and steady trade winds blowing onshore, this beach is also the best place in the state to learn how to windsurf, which adds to its weekend popularity.
Poipu Beach Park, Kauai
 On an island with a surplus of worthy beaches, Poipu Beach Park gets top billing because it offers a greater variety of conditions and activities in one small area than any other lifeguard-staffed beach on the island. Swimming is safe here most of the year.
Expansive lawns surround a cove so calm and shallow that even toddlers can sit and splash in the water. Snorkelers can walk out onto the sandy point to the west of the children's cove for good snorkeling along the rocky reef. Farther to the west along this cove is a good boogie boarding spot the locals call Left-Lefts because of the way the waves curl.
Poipu Beach Park has recently been expanded to include the once-famous Brennecke's Beach, a bodysurf break to the east of the children's cove. The jury is still out as to whether a local effort to truck in new sand to replace that scoured away by the hurricane will restore Brennecke's Beach to its former glory.
Hapuna Beach State Park, Hawaii
Geologically the youngest of the state's islands, the Big Island of Hawaii has yet to naturally develop the range of sandy beaches that its neighbors have. During the summer months, the water off Hapuna Beach State Park on the Kohala Coast is typically as calm as a lake's, but storm surf that rolls in here periodically from October through April can create problems.
Hapuna's popularity is due in part to shaded grass and picnic tables that attract
 visitors and locals alike. No matter how packed the parking lot is, the big beach seldom seems crowded, but you can find even more seclusion by walking north around the rocks to the gorgeous arc of sand fronting the Prince Hotel; look for good snorkeling around the rocks at the north end of that beach when the water is calm.
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