MillerTime: Day 4: Land to be Cherished

This morning we woke up early to go explore the north side of the island and the Kohala sights. Kohala means “cherished land” in Hawaiian. As we drove north, despite all of the clouds, we had fabulous views of both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa as well as the peaks of Maui in the distance. Unfortunately there was not good pullouts or overlooks for pictures.

We drove north on highway 250, Aka Kohala Mountain Road, to Hawi with Maui leading the way in front of us and then turned onto highway 270 along the northern coast until the highway ended…and I mean ended without even a turnaround. This abrupt end is the beginning of the beautiful Pololu Valley. The lookout there displays the raw, untamed side of the island. We hiked a half mild down a steep trail to the Pololu Beach with black sand. Beautiful!

Wiping our shoes before descending the trail.

A beautiful inlet from the beach fed by high tide. Water birds were fishing on the shore.

The mounds are ancient burial mounds.

If there is sand, Ash must dig and create.

After our hike, we headed south along the northwest coast of the island and tried to spot a navigational heiau where the stones are aligned to point to the other Hawaiian islands and Tahiti. Unfortunately the heiau is located on private property but you can see it from afar from a public trail. You can see the stones (think of it as a tiny Hawaiian Stonehenge) on the top of the hill overlooking the sea.

The views of the sea were great- beautiful aqua pools with bright yellow fish!

A closer view of some of the stones of the heiau. Unfortunately our view was from below so one couldn’t see much.

The trail was located on an old railway bed.

Derek and I with Mauna Loa in the background.

Mauna Kea reveals itself from the clouds!

We then drove to Waimea for lunch at the Big Island Brewhaus. Excellent beer and food!

And a view of the peak of Mauna Kea with the telescopes on top from the restaurant.

New Mexican green Chile stew in Hawaii!!! Soooo good!

After lunch we hiked a trail through a lava fields to a black and white beach to view golden lava pools. Interesting, but not our favorite hike. Hiking over lava stones is not fun.

Mauna Kea on the left and Mauna Loa on the right.

Black lava and white coral make a pretty combination on the beach, but tough on which to walk.

The golden pools were lush green oases within the lava field.

The gold color cones from algae growth on the lava rocks within the pools.

LOTS of Lava!

After our hike we headed to Manini’owali Beach in Kua Bay, a nice Sandy beach good for swimming. We all had a blast swimming and cooling off in the ocean. Zach and Ash both loved it!!