Punalu’u Beach, also known as Black Sand Beach, is the most famous black sand beach of Hawaii. When molten lava from the active Mauna Loa and Kilauea volcanoes made its way into the water and quickly cooled, the lava broke into tiny granules that became the sand.

While the waters here are choppy, making it less than ideal for swimming, you can picnic your little heart out, go honu watching (2 endangered turtle species, the green turtle and the hawksbill turtle, call Punalu’u home and both can be seen swimming in the water just off the main beach), or simply take in the views. Because it’s not every day that you stand before one of nature’s rarest works.