This is the farthest-North place we visited on the Big Island. Mauna Kea Beach is accessed through a private resort (Mauna Kea Resort) and they give out a limited amount of daily parking passes to the public. I assumed that you would have to get here pretty early to get one of these passes so we accessed the shore from the next beach South (Hapuna Beach). The North end of Hapuna Beach is also accessed through a private resort that gives out parking passes to the public. We checked at the access gate and they gave us a pass so we drove down the private road to the parking area. We then walked down a trail to Hapuna Beach, which was a big, classic sandy beach.
We arrived at Mauna Kea Beach, another nice big sandy beach, marred only by a big area covered with the resort's lounge chairs.
As for the snorkeling, we probably shouldn't have bothered. Visibility near the beach was too bad to even see our feet. We swam out to the North point to where there were some rocky areas, but the visibility out here was really bad too (less than 10'). From what we could see, there didn't seem to be much live coral or fish. Maybe if we swam out farther on a calmer day, there would have been more to see. This is a great sandy beach though to hang around in the water without worrying about stubbing your toes on sharp lava rock.
