POLIHALE STATE PARK – Emotion overcomes Raylene “Sissy” Kahale as she describes the significance of Polihale to Hawaiian families who have lived here for many generations.
“Polihale is like our home. You don’t go to the bathroom at the same place you sleep or eat off. This place is so sacred. I don’t think people realize the mana that it brings and gives. When you come here it feels like coming home,” Kahale says, as tears well up.
Lineal descendants of the area, now known as Polihale State Park, can trace their ancestry back hundreds of years to this wind-swept, stunningly beautiful region on Kaua‘i’s west side. Sandwiched between the Napali Coast State Wilderness Park and the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility, Polihale has long been a place for native Hawaiians and others to visit to fish, surf, swim or just walk on the two and a half miles of beach within the park.
Sand dunes, some as high as 100-feet during certain times of the year, are one of the major attractions, but not necessarily just for their beauty. Polihale, has long been a place where it is common practice to drive on the beach. However, it has never been legal.
In addition to being Illegal, if you’re racing across dunes or up and down the sand, it becomes a safety issue for other people on the beach. Sensitive plants on the beach have been destroyed. After being forced to close the park for much of 2020, the DLNR Division of State Parks erected new signs to better define where it is okay to drive.
Due to its remote location, broad expanse, and lack of enforcement and maintenance personnel, getting everyone to play by the rules at Polihale has long been challenging.
“Fortunately,” State Parks Administrator Curt Cottrell said, “the measures we put in during the park’s closure last year, seem to be making a difference. We are getting fewer complaints of indiscriminate driving on the sand, fewer reports of large unpermitted (and unsafe during the pandemic) gatherings, and less illegal camping.”
Camping permits for the park were suspended after more than 1,000 people showed up to party at the park during a three-day holiday weekend last year. Social media has images of people driving nilly-willy across the sand, leaving heaps of rubbish behind, setting up waterslides on the dunes, and generally showing complete disrespect for Polihale’s ecological and ancestral importance. Of particular concern is people defecating in the trees and bush that line the beach, rather than using the available comfort stations.
Officer Armalin Richardson of the DLNR Division of Conservation and Resources Enforcement, who regularly patrols Polihale said, “After the closure, the park has been really mellow compared to the past and I think community involvement has a lot to do with that. Having the people so tied to the land explaining how special Polihale is, helps people be on their best behavior.”
Managers continue to deal with a litany of rotten, inappropriate, and culturally insensitive behaviors, not just at Polihale, but in parks across Hawai‘i.
“We have about 30 stewardship agreements or curator agreements across the system,” said State Parks Assistant Administrator Alan Carpenter. “Parks with formal community involvement are some of the best managed and best cared for places we have.”
Carpenter points to the interesting conflict between what was happening at Polihale and at the opposite end of the coast at Ha‘ena State Park, where a 20-year-long stewardship agreement has been in place, visitation is limited, and both the quality of the resource and quality of visitor experience have been enhanced. He added, “We are hopefully looking for an agreement for Polihale with the families who have ancestors buried there and continue their cultural practices there. We just want a more compliant and understanding visitor, who gets culture first, and then recreation, if it can be accommodated.”
Sissy Kahale concluded, “A lot has to do with education. Social media just shows Polihale as a big beach. It’s actually not just a big beach. It’s a home and resting place to a lot of our family members and it’s still home. I think education has become an endangered species. That’s actually what Polihale is…an endangered species.”
Kahale and other members of her family participated in the making of a video that describes the cultural significance of Polihale. Watch it here: https://vimeo.com/499830965
They are hopeful education and an agreement between the state and the lineal descendants of Polihale will ensure good behaviors, enjoyment, and recognition of culture, for everyone who visits.
Another lame race play, get fn real , guess what many of the offenders were Hawaiian lineal descedants. Many were haoles, in fact it was our youth, all of us that caused these acts of disrespect to that shoreline. You parents failed and your kids went stoopid there. In fact since tourism has left , the amount of stupidity on the roads has not decreased. So many problems here we balme on tourists, maybe we should look in the mirror, that includes hawaiians and every other race on this rock. Not tourists tossin mattresses in the bushes, not haoles dumpin trash cars in anahola either. Polihale should remain closed indefinetly as once it opens it will go back to what it was. A mess. Dlnr cant even keep up, You know their funding gets used to support boat harbors where wealthy boat owners pay a fraction of the actual cost to run the boat docks? Yes its true, the issues of mismanagement are so deep its incredible. The allocation of funding is absurd. That shoreline deserves protection from US and it cant be provided by an ineot government. If the state of hawaii were a business it wouldve bankrupted long ago, but it can tap us, yes tap us, and remain ineffective . Why do we let this happen, maybe Hawaii residents should with hold tax payments to the state until they shape up.
What article are you reading? At no point in the article are tourist blamed. Reading comprehension is a valuable skill you might want to brush up on.
Were these “nilly-Willy” ignoramus’ tourists or residents? “Social media has images of people driving nilly-willy across the sand, leaving heaps of rubbish behind, setting up waterslides on the dunes, and generally showing complete disrespect for Polihale’s ecological and ancestral importance. Of particular concern is people defecating…”. Seems to me certain residents lack the considerations that get blamed on tourists. This just points out not all natives are holier than thou…
The issue is not a lack of rules, it is lack of enforcement of existing rules. Look no further than Lydgate house-less camp if you want to see what it looks like when we put rules if place and do not enforce them. Put someone in place and pay them to enforce the existing rules, and the issues go away.
I read the Garden Island News every day. I’m originally from Washington state now transplanted to Oregon. Why do I tell you that? Because I have been visiting Kauai for 50 + years. It’s my second home. It’s in my blood. It’s the only place where I have true peace and tranquillity. Polihale is a sacred place for the Hawaiian descendants and for “visitors” who have fallen in love with Kauai. Kudos for all the efforts to maintain the beauty and tradition of this very special area. Aloha.
Mahalo Ms. Kahale for speaking out. We don’t need to drive on a dune or a beach, we can all clean up after ourselves and yet some of us don’t. People who feel entitled do not have respect.
They used different park pitchers to make like this park was a mess. I think the DNR and News have an mischief AGANDA.
Polihale is my fav spot on island. I feel so connected to the land and sea. I feel it’s spirit. I moved here two years ago from Cali. And I feel like I have more appreciation for the the land than most of the natives. I witnessed so much hate toward transplants and lack of respect to the land. I was there that weekend in July. And the people people who grew up on this island were the ones who left bags and bags of trash. Demolished a perfectly good bathroom. Drove their trucks up and down the beach as if showing off. It’s a lack of respect and a lack of education that is just continues from parents to children. This is a frustrating issue. I was so sad when it closed. But I went back last weekend for day use. And it was magical, less people, no trucks on the beach, i would like to camp. But the current situation is clearly healing the land!! We are so blessed! Please protect and witness its beauty!!
It should be the peoples park. Flood in 2008 damaged on e bridge and closed the road. State said it would cost millions and take 1 to 2 yrs to reopen. Local resident and business volunteers did the job in 8days.