Hidden Treasures

Quote of the day: “And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” ― Roald Dahl

Hawaiian Monk Seal at Hidden Beach

One of the benefits of staying in one place long enough to get to know several local people, is finding out about hidden places that are worth visiting but are not listed in the tour books.

One such place is the beach I visited yesterday. Mishka, who works two days a week at Akiko’s and has been on the Big Island for about 3 years. She has been a great source of information about great places to go.

A while back she told me about a beach accessible only by walking down from the highway through Papaikou (a village near Hilo) and then through a gate that leads to a path through private property down to a lovely beach below.

This week she told me that there is a Hawaiian monk seal that has been at that beach for some time. I decided it was time to go exploring and see this little hidden beach.

What a face!

I drove to Papaikou and parked my car in a gravel parking lot near the highway. After checking with the owners of the nearby store, that it was ok to park there for an hour and walk to the beach, I headed downhill about half a mile. At the bottom of a narrow private street, I found an open gate and a sign which indicated that when the gate was open it was ok to walk through the private property to follow the path to the beach.

House I walked past on way to beach

I expected a wild steep path that would be difficult to hike. Instead I found a wide, well-tended path that was very easy to hike down and stunningly beautiful.

When I reached the beach, the first thing I saw was the monk seal. “That can’t be it!” I thought. It looked almost like a big saggy sack. At first I couldn’t see its face but as I got closer, I saw the back flipper and realized that this was indeed, the monk seal.

Another house along the way

It paid little attention to me and just lay there snoozing. Once in a while it turned its head but other than that it didn’t move.

I kept my distance from it because it is an endangered species and I did not want to disturb it. It is estimated that only 1100 monk seals still exist and they are threatened by increasing levels of human encroachment and by limited levels of genetic variation.

Entrance to path that leads to beach

Monk seals shed their outer layer of hair and skin in an annual molt. Usually dark grey, sunlight and seawater can cause the skin to turn brown and yellow-brown and long periods of time spent in water can promote algae growth, giving seals a green tinge.

During the period of molting, the monk seals stay on the beach. I don’t know whether this seal was molting, but it’s skin was definitely brown and yellow-brown with lots of algae growth creating a green coating on much of its back.

Part of the path

The beautiful hidden cove had a black sand beach and a lagoon which high tide re-filled daily. A stream fed freshwater into the lagoon from high above. The seal was lying back from the beach in an area next to the lagoon.

When I arrived there was an old man getting ready to fish and very soon a young couple arrived at the beach. Before the guy got ready to swim he walked all around the beach picking up any trash that had washed up on the beach and depositing it in a pile away from the beach. It was inspiring to see someone showing such care for the place.

The View

As I was leaving several surfers arrived. I would have liked to stay and photograph them surfing, but I had assured the clerk at the store that I would only be parked in their lot for about an hour and it was time to head back. It was also almost noon and the sun’s heat was at its peak. Time to get out of the sun and do something else for a while.

When was the last time you went exploring and found hidden treasures of beauty? Is it time to find someplace new to explore?

Flower that had fallen to the ground on the path

On a side note, there are residents who are upset with the owners of the private land which the path crosses. They believe that the gate to the path should always be open and are upset with access being restricted. I believe that signs on some of the houses that I walked by on my way to the beach express those sentiments.