After Champaign Pond, we continued driving along the coast to the west, looking for Kehena Beach which is not marked, nor is it visible from the road. But we knew the milemarker and saw a bunch of cars parked along the road, so we were able to find it.

Turns out that Kehena Beach is at the bottom of a sheer cliff, accessible only by scrambling down a rocky slope. But it was certainly worth the effort:

Kehena is a beautiful black sand beach, hidden from the world and shaded by the cliff and towering palms and pines.

Kehena has a reputation as a “free-spirit” beach, which we discovered is well-deserved. We found a spot on the sand a little ways away from the people that were there when we arrived, then laid down on our towels…

…to look up at the sky.

The other beach-goers were an interesting assortment (as you can see in the picture, above, behind Dale): a couple hippies smoking pot; a guy playing a flute; a couple kids; some surfer-dudes; and an aged hippy with a beer belly, dancing and peeing in the ocean.

And then we noticed something else…

…everybody that went down to the water to swim was in his or her birthday suit!

P.S. We didn’t go swimming.