Waimanalo Beach, on the Windward side of Oahu, stretches for miles.  It has a range of moods along the way, and different populations who frequent different areas.  Access ranges from large parking lots with facilities — restrooms, showers, picnic tables, lifeguard — to narrow beach  lanes which access portions with no facilities at all, to a military base (Bellows) which doesn’t seem to be very active but shares a particularly sweet stretch with the public on weekends, to beach parks along the road where extended families of locals camp.  In some cases the people camping at the beach are homeless.  The part I visited this day has no facilities, very little parking and very few people with whom one must share the beach and beauty.

A bit of shade on a a vast stretch of beach.

Working on the perfect photo.

Down a little ways, are lots of ironwood trees backing up the beach.  You can see how the prevailing on-shore Tradewinds, which have swept unimpeded over thousands of miles of ocean, relentlessly nudge the trees to bend inland. This particular section of Waimanalo Beach is known as “Sherwoods”, as in Sherwood Forest.  They say that the thieves who frequent beach parking lots like Sherwood Forest to break into cars and steal stuff laugh that, like Robin Hood, they are taking from the rich and giving to the poor (themselves).  It’s the family business in some cases, the skills handed down from father to son, uncle to nephew.Sherwood Forest.

The telephoto lens brings the Mokulua Islands right in; in reality, they are quite a ways from this part of Waimanalo beach.  They are off the Lanikai section of Windward Oahu’s best beach-town: Kailua.  There will be some lovely photos of the Mokuluas in a future post dedicated to Lanikai Beach.Mokulua islands off Lanikai.

Much further up the Windward coast, on the far side of Kailua town, distinctive Mokapu Point separates Kailua Bay from the further-north Kaneohe Bay.  Mokapu Point looks from a distance like a turtle, its neck extended, heading out to sea.  Not so much here, though.  🙂Mokapu Point in the distance.

Way back the other direction on Waimanalo Beach, Makapu’u Point is silhouetted in the distance.  Once again, the telephoto makes it appear misleadingly close.Makapu’u Point.

Here’s a shot of Makapu’u taken from quite close.  The lighthouse is a speck on its seaward flank.  It’s a great hike to the lighthouse, with stunning sea views, at one point all the way from Diamond Head on the South Shore to the gorgeous view up the Windward coast.Makapu’u Point with its distinctive black lava rock.  I invite you to relax and enjoy.  Gaze on the sand and the sea, and imagine the sound of the waves rhythmically surging in and then being pulled back out.  🙂

Here are a few more ocean scenes to lull you; watch the waves rushing in to kiss the sand.

Walking along the beach being mesmerized by the gentle incoming and outgoing waves, you forget your To Do list and just relax.

Aloha,

Iz