Red Sand Beach

This was one of the places that are not described anywhere but in Andrew's book, as far as I can tell. Also another one of those that we would have never found given just what the book says. Andrew starts by very confusingly describing two different red sand beaches, intertwining their descriptions and pointing to different other unrelated pages, as usual. However, I managed to sort them out and isolate the directions to the more interesting one. Seemingly very detailed directions:

"To get there, park on Uakea near Hauoli. Even though it's a dead-end street, make sure you park facing the correct direction [or you'll get a ticket, blah-blah-blah]. Just before the Sea Ranch Cottages there's a large lawn area owned by the county. Look to the right for the obvious trails leading downhill. Continue straight down, taking a left just near the shore. Be careful blah-blah-blah. All told, it's about a five-minute walk."

We parked on the dead-end street facing the proper way, as he says. (He is right about that: we saw tickets on the windshields of the few cars facing the other way.) Then we started looking around for the Sea Ranch Cottages, lawn, and trails leading down. The Sea Ranch Cottages turned out to be the complex at the end of the street, behind a fence. Before that, on the right, there was a huge lawn plastered with "No Trespassing" signs, also with a fence on the sea side and with no obvious trails leading down or anywhere else.

If it wasn't for a friendly guy raking the lawn, we would have turned back then and there, but the guy pointed us in the right direction. Actually, the lawn Andrew is talking about is on the left side of the street - before the Sea Ranch Cottages for sure, but you have to walk past all the parked cars and the fence to see it. Once you turn left, onto the lawn, and walk a bit that way, then you can start "looking to the right for obvious trails leading downhill" (they will only be on your right after you turn left; if you just face straight along the street and towards the sea cottages, these trails are on your left).

As my father used to say: "You misdial just one digit in a phone number and reach a totally different person." Same here: you just omit one left turn in your directions, and people trying to follow them end up in a totally different place.

After successfully navigating this snafu, we started on one of the trails leading down to the ocean. After a few minutes, we could see a small cove with red sand/dirt down below and a similar cove a bit to the left from it, which was probably what Andrew meant by "go down and turn left, a total walk of 5 minutes." There was also a woman standing there on the trail, contemplating the two coves, and upon seeing us she asked: "Is this the Red Sand beach?" I could quite understand her disappointment (pretty for sure, but nothing special) and answered: "Your guess is as good as mine. We are probably following the same guide book." She turned around then, and we would have done the same if my husband wasn't a compulsive wanderer: seeing that there was a trail forking off to the left along the cliff, kind of midway on our descent, he followed it, and we followed him for a while...

Alex wanted to continue along the cliff, as far as that trail went, but Temma and I were in favor of turning back, because there didn't seem to be much point going on, and the sandy and steep trail looked like it was very easy to slide off of and end up with a lot of scratches or worse. Meanwhile, a couple coming along in the opposite direction got even with us, and the young woman overhearing our conversation exclaimed: "Oh no! This is the worst part, once you turn the corner it's much easier going, and when you get there IT IS SO WORTH IT!" Thus encouraged, we went on, turned the corner and... saw the Red Sand beach!..

So here are the complete, abridged and verified, directions to the Red Sand beach that Andrew should have provided in his best-selling guidebook, but didn't:

"To get there, park on Uakea street, near Hauoli. Even though it's a dead-end street, make sure you park facing the correct direction, otherwise you'll most likely get a ticket. Walk to the end of Ukaea and, just before the Sea Ranch Cottages at the end of the street, turn left onto a large lawn. Look to the right for the obvious trails leading downhill (to the shore). If the tide is low and the sea calm, it is easiest to go all the way down to the shore and turn left; if the lower trail is submerged, then take the trail that goes along the shore about midway down (and be careful because it is steep and sometimes slippery). Whichever trail you take, follow it until you turn the corner of the cliff; you will then see the Red Sand Beach in the cove ahead. All told, it's about a fifteen-minute walk."

And this is how it looks from the beach itself. The sand is actually dark-red, the water is blue, the rocks - black... The jagged wall of the rocks protects the cove from most of the surf. Waves roll in through the gap on the left; they also splash against the rocks on the right, providing fountains of white foam as a backdrop. Swimming is good in the middle, and you only get splashed if you come close to the wall (photo 73). The beauty and serenity of this place is unbelievable, words and even pictures don't do it justice. This is one of my absolutely favorite places on Maui.

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