Mike in the Wild

The Kona Coast is every mainlander's initial destination when they travel to the Big Island of Hawaii.  In fact your flight literally lands in Kona, at Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport.  But many of the fancy resorts you're ultimately heading to, like the Hilton and the Westin, are actually on the Kohala Coast, a short distance to the north.   Kona also has some big hotels but it's more densely developed, home to towns like Kailua where there is a wider variety of affordable oceanfront lodging and dining options.  Also, two of the best snorkeling spots on the Big Island are there: Kealakekua Bay and Two Step. (Read about my visits:  Kealakekua  &  Two Step .)   Opting to stay in Kohala, I chose the the sprawling grounds of the Hilton in Waikoloa Village for six of my vacation's eight nights.  I also wanted to use some hotel points to offset the high cost of living on the Big Island.  Furthermore,  some of the most beautiful beaches on the island are in Koh

Along with a'a and pahoehoe , kipuka was a new Hawaiian word entering my vocabulary during my trip to the Big Island in February.  Volcanologists use the first two words to describe types of lava; the third is an area of land that survives a lava flow.  The habitat is usually one that remains isolated, surrounded by mostly rocky terrain centuries after the eruption event.   Kipukapuaulu in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was the first kipuka I knowingly explored.  In fact its second name is Bird Park so I was eager to visit it as I hunted for Hawaiian honeycreepers.  I had seen lots of 'apapanes in that area of the island, but others like 'amakihis and i'iwis had eluded me.   The kipuka comprised mesic forest, rather than the rain forest that pervaded most of the landscape on that side and at that elevation of the island.  Except for appearing a bit drier, the flora still looked mostly similar to what I was observing nearby on Kilauea Volcano's lush trails.   The m

Chasing Hawaiian honeycreepers has become a fixture of my trips to the Aloha State.  After all, bird watching is my passion and the islands are home to some amazing endemic species.  My last several trips to Maui and Kauai introduced me to several members of this bird family, one that has struggled against extinction for centuries.  One individual that has fared better than others, the 'apapane, was nonetheless a difficult subject to photograph until I finally arrived on the Big Island in February.   I've seen 'apapanes before, and even got a shot of my first one in a native tree, the  'ohi'a lehua,  near the parking lot at  Pu'u O Kila Lookout on the island of Kauai.  I saw several more along the nearby Pihea Trail that begins with spectacular views of the Na Pali Coast below and then leads deeper into Kokee State Park.  However the constantly flitting birds were impossible targets for good pictures. Actually a different bird was in my sights that day: the i

As Hawaii's coastline came into view from my window seat, it didn't take me long to identify the Big Island's tallest volcano, Mauna Kea.  Capped in winter snow, the mountain rose almost 14,000 feet above sea level and defined the entire northeastern corner of Hawaii.  (Back home, Arizona's highest peak is only 12,637 feet high.)  Cloud cover and my seat's location prevented me from seeing the island's four other volcanoes: Kohala, Hualalai, Mauna Loa, and Kilauea, the last three of which are active.  Mauna Loa is the giant however, just a little lower in elevation than Mauna Kea but more than twice as massive in volume.  The other three volcanoes barely compete in size: Hualalai is just over 8,000 feet and Kohala about 5,500 feet.  Meanwhile, the most active of the volcanoes and the star attraction at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Kilauea, currently tops out at a mere 4,091 feet above sea level.   Kilauea and its siblings on all the Hawaiian Islands are shiel

The Big Island of Hawaii is most famous for its volcanoes, three of the five of which are still active.  Because of their sizes Mauna Kea (dormant) and Mauna Loa (active) dominate the landscape from about any point on the island.  But it's Kilauea with its seething caldera and rift zones in the heart of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park that is the star attraction.   However most people visiting the island stay far away from the park, along the Kohala or Kona Coasts on Hawaii's western side.  It's no coincidence that they're enjoying the drier leeward side of the island; combine the inviting climate with sandy beaches and you have the perfect recipe for luxury resorts.   But there's no escaping Hawaii's volcanic history from the very moment you touch down at the airport; the runway is atop a lava flow from the 1801 Huʻehuʻe flow from Hualapai, the volcano (active) that dominates the Kona Coast's eastern horizon.  At the same time, the highway to the luxury reso