On July 3, 2003 Hawaii Volcanoes National Park purchased Kahuku Ranch from The Damon Estate for $22 million, effectively doubling the size of the national park. The 116,000 acre unit is free to access, but currently entry is only permitted on weekends. The park is not accessible by bicycle or scooter. Cars and motorcycles are […]
Just up the mountain from Hilo town sits one of the lesser-visited geological formations of the area. Kaumana cave is a 25 mile long lava tube that is accessed via a skylight created when part of the cave ceiling collapsed more than a hundred years ago, leaving two gaping cave doorways exposed to the outside […]
One of Hawaii’s most commonly seen seasonal visitors is Kolea, The Pacific Golden Plover. These birds migrate from Alaska and spend their winters in the Hawaiian islands. Adults arrive in August, juveniles arrive in October. Plovers are extremely widespread and their arrival in Hawaii marks a seasonal change and to many locals watching the plovers […]
The center of activity in Big Island’s Ka’u district, Na’alehu is best known to non-locals as the southernmost town in the United States, but to those who live in Ka’u Na’alehu is known simply as “town”. Na’alehu is tiny, but this small town far away from the big cities is the best place to experience […]
The Northernmost town in Big Island’s district of Ka’u, Pahala is much smaller and quieter than it once was. Originally the center of a bustling sugar cane plantation, Pahala’s location was chosen for three reasons: It sits on a flat plateau on the side of the mountain, it has direct access to a water well, […]
For those who want to experience Hawaii Volcanoes National Park while camping, Namakanipaio campground is the easiest and most convenient way to do so. Sitting 31.5 miles south of Hilo, Namakanipaio is only a 1/2 mile walk from the Jaggar Museum on the edge of Kilauea’s Halemaumau crater. Volcano sits at an elevation of 4000 […]
Fifteen miles northwest of Hilo, tucked away in the heart of Hamakua is the most accessible large waterfall found on the island: Akaka Falls. Far from being the largest in the state, (that title goes to the 2,953ft Olo’upena Falls on Molokai) Akaka falls is still a massively grandiose sight with a plunge of 442 […]
In 1866 a 31-year-old Mark Twain spent four months in Hawaii. Three of those months were spent on the Big Island where Twain rented a horse and “Ransacked the island” for his dispatches back to the Sacramento Daily Union on the mainland. In June of 1866 he visited Ka’u and planted a Monkeypod tree in […]
For those that have never seen a black sand beach, Punalu’u is an eye-opening stop on the road from Volcano to south point. However, if you’ve seen other black sand beaches you may be unimpressed by this, the most heavily touristed area in Big Island’s Ka’u district. Unlike other often remote black sand beaches this […]
Sitting just 2 miles west of Na’alehu, the historic town of Waiohinu is a mere shell of its former self. Driving through this miniscule community one would have no idea that this area has supported human activity longer than anywhere else in Hawaii. It’s believed that the polynesian settlers made their first landfall near Ka […]
