Hawai’i Big Island Trip Day12

I saw the real rain forest at Kalōpā Native Forest State Park.

wild guava

East side of Big Island has a lot of rain. It makes great rain forest. Kalōpā Native Forest State Park is a great place to see it. There is ōhiʻa lehua forest. I had never seen ōhiʻa before. ōhiʻa are native Hawaiian trees found in the wet area. This is extremely peaceful forest. No sounds on the most portion, but you hear some area has nice sounds from bell crickets. There are many ferns below trees. I found some guava and ate it. It was juicy and tasty.

Because the east side has a lot of rains and beaches on the east coast are not very suitable for snorkeling, people usually focus on the west side. Also if you don’t camp, it can be very expensive to stay for a long time. We saved money by camping during the whole trip and explored east side when it was sunny.

Near Hilo, we camped on the yard of hostel. It is common in Europe to camp in the yard of huts or hostels. I am glad that such kind of camping in Hawai’i. By camping there, we had an access to outdoor hot shower, couches near the yard, and even outlets to charge camping gears, such as head lamps or solar chargers. These 2 nights in Hilo was the only opportunity to take a hot shower during the3-week trip. Usually my trips are no shower at all, so it was a glamping there.