All beaches in Hawaii are public beaches. However, the Marine Corps Base Hawaii (MCBH) has 5 beaches that you can only access if you have base access. #workperks However, you can apply for base access even if you’re a civilian and it’s good for one year. The pictures don’t have the best lighting, it was cloudy, but I was tired of waiting for the perfect day to photograph, so you’ll just have to pretend or come see for yourself.
There are five beaches on the MCBH. This post will talk about three of them, and I’ll get to the other two eventually. First up is Fort Hase Beach (pronounced Hah-see). It’s probably the most convenient to the gym/main part of base. It overlooks Kailua and Lanikai, the area where I live.
Then looking left you can see base housing.
There is a lot of reef and rocks sticking up out of the water, which makes it difficult to swim. The surf is also really high. According to my friend, during low tide it creates a lot of fun tide pools for kiddos to use, but I haven’t been at low tide so I haven’t been able to verified that. Lots of sea glass opportunities. There is some open area for swimming without reef. And as you can see, I currently have the entire beach to myself (4pm on a Friday, though).
- Convenience: A+
- Parking: A+ (paved option and designated)
- Swimmable: C-
- Lifeguards: No
- Bathroom: Port-o-potty
- Sea glass: B+
Up next is North Beach. This is the beach that Brian and I ran (trotted) during the surf and turf 5k. It’s a little further away than Ft. Hase. There isn’t any real parking lot for it, just street parking. You have to take stairs down to get to it. More rocks on the shoreline, but I think more room without rocks.
Toward the right side of the first picture you’ll see a pyramid shaped rock. That’s by the third beach I’ll talk about next. North Beach is a popular beach for surfers. (I need to work on remembering to up my shutter speed during action photos, this is a little blurry).
All beaches have a lot of signs about who to call if you see wildlife in danger or nesting. There were a couple of these roped off nesting spots on North Beach. I wonder if the turtles approve of the imposed redecoration. Unfortunately, no actual turtle sighting.
This had more people on the beach, I think because it has more swimming space. It can be rough surf.
- Convenience: B
- Parking: C (street)
- Swimmable: B
- Lifeguards: Yes
- Bathroom: No?
- Sea glass: D
The third and final beach for this post is Pyramid Rock beach, which is essentially adjacent to North Beach. This first picture will look very similar to the one from North beach in the same direction.
This is the picture of its namesake, that Pyramid rock I mentioned earlier. (Tangent about photography. To create this picture I actually stitched together three different exposed pictures. Having the setting sun reflect bright in the clouds would wash out the sky, but then exposing for the sky would make the “rock” a dark blob. Will write a post about this later).
There weren’t any lifeguards at the time, but I believe there can be on certain days with certain currents. To get to this beach you have to cross the airfield, so it’s a bit far. Crossing the airfield is normally easy, but if they’re doing training exercises you’ll get stuck behind a gate (think railroad crossing except for planes).
- Convenience: C
- Parking: B (dirt patch)
- Swimmable: B+
- Lifeguards: Sometimes?
- Bathroom: No?
- Sea glass: D
Another #workperk is some of the recreational activities available to us. Here is a beach cottage you can rent out on the MCBH (there are a few on this side of base). Civilians can’t be unaccompanied without applying for access first, but if you came and visited we could rent one out and get you a pass. They supposedly book quickly though.
Moral of the story, MCBH has quite a few beaches if you’re looking for a quiet respite from the tourists, or for a quick walk on a different beach after the gym. I’ll recap the last two when I get pictures of them. Three beaches in one day is a lot!