Fodor's Expert Review MacKenzie State Recreation Area

This park was one of the few coastal parks in the Puna region spared in the 2018 Kilauea eruption, and overlooking rocky shoreline cliffs in a breezy ironwood grove are a pavilion, picnic tables, and restrooms—but no drinking water. The park is significant for the restored section of the old King's Highway trail system, which circled the coast in the era before Hawaii's contact with the Western world. In those days, regional chiefs used the trails to connect coastal villages, collect taxes, and maintain control over people. Views take in the rugged coast, rocky beach, and coastal dry forest. There's good shore fishing here, so you might see some locals with a line or two in the water.