There’s a state law in Hawaii which says all the beaches (what we have more of in Hawaii than anything else except aging Democrats) belong to the people. So, all beaches have public access. No single individual or company can own a beach. If you can make it to the beach, you can sit on it. Getting there, of course, is your problem.

That means you’re welcome to walk, sunbathe, surf, snorkel, and do pretty much whatever on any beach in Hawaii. Even those multi-million dollar beach homes don’t own the beach and they can’t keep you off the beach. If you can get there—public access to all beaches is sometimes limited.

For missile lovers, there’s a special beach on Kauai. It’s called Barking Sands. Don’t ask. I’ve talked to as many folks as I care to and no one knows exactly why it’s called Barking Sands. The beach area is located on the extreme northwest side of Kauai—an area known as the Mana Plain. Barking Sands is a long and narrow site bordered by nothing on both sides.

We’re talking remote here, so your cell phone may not connect to anything except mosquitoes and ear wax.

Today, the whole area is run by the military (that branch of the government with bad haircuts, odd uniforms, and a bi-polar attitude about others in that part of the military that isn’t the same part of the military they’re in).

That means you can’t get on the beach despite what the state law says about the beach being “public” access. Blow up one Pentagon building and knock down a couple of skyscrapers and the government tends to get a bit paranoid about who strolls up to the remotest beach in the US; south of Alaska, of course.

Barking Sands is now occupied by the Pacific Missile Range Facility. Back in the 1930s, Kingsford Smith, an Australian charcoal tycoon, made an historic flight carrying charcoal from Australia to Barking Sands via Fiji. He used a Ford tri-motor plane to make the journey as it was the only plane available with a built in hibachi pot.

Local Barking Sands residents cleared the runway, filled in holes, and marked the runway so he’d find it. He must have landed OK because Kingsford charcoal is available at every 7-11 grocery store in the country.

Many years later, Barking Sands was transferred to the Navy and placed under the control of the Cammanding Officer, Naval Air Station, Barbers Point. Then it was transferred within the Navy to the Department to the Commander, Pacific Missile Test Center, at Point Mugu, California, and renamed pacific Missile Range Facility Hawaiian Area.

PACMISRANFAC HAWAREA, for short.

Local folks just call it Barking Sands. But we don’t know why.

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