Whittington Beach Park
Naalehu, HI
Whittington Beach Park sits on Honuapo Bay just outside Naalehu, a grassy county park with no real sand but a genuinely rugged shoreline of tide pools and the crumbling remains of an old sugar shipping pier. Hawksbill sea turtles, rarer here than the more common green sea turtles elsewhere on the island, turn up in the shallows often enough that regulars keep an eye out.
A quiet, historic spot with a real chance at spotting a hawksbill turtle, but there's no beach to speak of and little reason to come unless the history or the tide pools interest you.
How we score beachesWalk out to what's left of the old pier at low tide. It's one of the more overlooked pieces of plantation era history left standing on this coast.
A free gravel lot serves the park and rarely fills outside of camping weekends.
Flat grassy paths connect the lot to the shoreline, an easy walk, though the shoreline itself is rocky tide pool rather than sand.
Leashed dogs are welcome at Whittington Beach Park under the standard Hawaii County park rule.
This dry, windy stretch of Kau stays warm most of the year, with camping most comfortable outside of the occasional winter storm system.
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