page_title: Papakolea Beach
section_title: Access
hierarchical_section_title: Papakolea Beach / Access
caption_attribution_description: English: A first glimpse of Papakolea Beach after a long hike from the parking area.
context_page_description: Papakōlea Beach is a green sand beach located near South Point, in the Kaʻū district of the island of Hawaiʻi. It is one of only four green sand beaches in the world, the others being Talofofo Beach, Guam; Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island in the Galapagos Islands; and Hornindalsvatnet, Norway. It gets its distinctive coloring from olivine sand eroded out of the enclosing volcanic cone.
context_section_description: The beach is located about 3 miles (5 km) east of Ka Lae (known as South Point) on the island of Hawaiʻi.
  
  It is surrounded by pasturelands and is only accessible by foot. The paths are rugged (due to both vehicular traffic and erosion) and the land owner, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, has since restricted vehicular traffic in the area. In order to reach the beach one has to climb down the cinder cone.
caption: A first glimpse of Papakolea Beach after a long hike from the parking area
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "SONY DSC", "Image Make": "SONY", "Image Model": "SLT-A55V", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "QuickTime 7.6.6", "Image DateTime": "2016:06:11 15:58:21", "Image HostComputer": "Mac OS X 10.6.8", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "298", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[18, 56, 693/100]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[155, 38, 24093/500]", "GPS GPSAltitudeRef": "0", "GPS GPSAltitude": "217/5", "GPS GPSTimeStamp": "[22, 23, 8473/250]", "GPS GPSStatus": "A", "GPS GPSMeasureMode": "3", "GPS GPSSpeedRef": "K", "GPS GPSSpeed": "2/5", "GPS GPSTrackRef": "T", "GPS GPSTrack": "16361/50", "GPS GPSMapDatum": "WGS-84", "Image GPSInfo": "43476", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "43872", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "2749", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/160", "EXIF FNumber": "9", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2015:03:19 15:23:29", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2015:03:19 15:23:29", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "3", "EXIF BrightnessValue": "481/50", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "361/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Daylight", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "8192", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1856", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal"}