There is no road to this beach, therefore the tourism to this area is much less significant. Few people actually trek over the lava to the beach.
This black sand beach is relatively new on the island of Hawaii. Where the lava flow made a path from the erupting lava tube to the ocean, it covered the several neighborhoods, missing a small group of houses that are still occupied. The magma chamber under the Kilauea Caldera created a horizontal lava tube that broke the surface and covered several thousand houses. Recently school children from the covered neighborhood have planted coconut trees on the rock.
Where the lava flow meets the ocean a Black Sands Beach is created. The lava is not weathering at the same time, therefore at some points along the beach are cliffs and at some points the beach made of fine grained sand. The more water that comes into contact with the rocks and seeps into them the faster the erosional process will be. The sands are a real rich black (not as fine grained sand as a "normal beach" probably due to the short time these rocks have had to erode).
For more information regarding black sand beaches:
