Mālaekahana State Recreation Area

Mālaekahana State Recreation Area is located on the east side of the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii.

As we pulled up to the entrance, there is a long road that takes you to the parking lot.

You'll go through a gate that has a sign with Malaekahana State Recreation Area on it and another sign with the hours that it is open. 7AM to 6:45PM.

There is a really long parking lot. We went to the middle and parked there. From there we took the sidewalk that takes you to some picnic tables and a bathroom.

We kept following the sidewalk and that took us out to the beach.

From the beach you can see a small island that is a bird sanctuary called Mokuauia Islet Seabird Sanctuary. The nickname for the island is "Goat Island". When the water is at low tide it is possible to walk over to the island in shallow water. The water was high with lots of waves so we didn't walk over on our visit.

We walked to the other side of the beach to an area that has a rock sticking out of the water. That's where we laid out our towels and went snorkeling.

On the day that we went there were a lot of small waves. Because of all the waves, it made the water murky and wasn't very good for snorkeling.

We would love to go back to this beach in the summer to go snorkeling again when the water is calm.

Here are a few more aerial shots of Goat Island and this beautiful beach.

Overall, we had a great time here. We definitely want to go back to go snorkeling when the water is calm. We also want to go at low tide to walk over to Goat Island.

(Click on the map above to go to a Google Maps larger view.)

Mālaekahana State Recreation Area has a free parking lot.

Total Cost: $0

These are the checklist items I recommend:

• Bring your own towels, beach chairs, and beach umbrellas.
• Bring some drinks and snacks.
• Bring reef safe sunscreen.
• Bring your own snorkeling gear to use if the water is calm.
• Don't leave anything in your car.