I saw pictures of this in a guidebook and immediately wanted to check it out - a refreshing clear greenish pool framed against black lava rocks? Awesome! It was on our way back to the hotel, so I decided to stop by. Turned out to be one of the more interesting mini excursions for me on Kauai. You access the baths after a small interesting little mini hike, which heightens the sense of anticipation. Most of the hike is shaded, which is great on a warm summer day (when I went). When we went, fruit trees were in season (I think they were passionfruit?), and the lovely fruit fragrance accompanied us all the way down. This place is definitely a popular hangout, as all along the trail, I saw people streaming up and down the path. At first when I got to the shore, I was surprised - where's the bath? A quick look to the left and semi-distinct figures standing to the west gave me my answer.

The pics in the book were cool, but actually standing there was way the heck better. Visibility into the water was clearer than I thought, and colourful schools of fish swam around in the water, oblivious to the human counterparts. Looking around at the pounding surf was a treat as well - the waters were some of the rougher ones that I had seen on the island. Then of course, my favourite part was watching all the sea turtles swimming around just outside the bath. I don't know if they were just there for the day, but there were certainly many of them. Crazy to see them get swept around under the surf. Very fun. The only drawback were the bit-much crowds, which of course, I contributed to, so what am I saying? :)

I wish we had budgeted more time to spend here because it's a terrific place to swim close to, but protected from, some pretty rough water on the northeastern coast. We stopped by on the way back from SCUBA diving and saw some fish and sea turtles. Very highly recommended.

Go see Turtle bluff 100 meters east of the rock shore there are always huge sea turtles feeding 10 meters off shore.