Akaka Falls State Park...

Akaka Falls is a long free fall water fall on the island on Hawai'i.  Akaka Falls has a 442 foot vertical drop.  There's a great, short nature loop that goes around the gorge where the falls are located.

Not too much else to say other than that.  Mahalo for visiting and enjoy the pictures!

Here's a short 20 foot cascading waterfall hiding in the jungle.

Fields of the Big Island...

I was headed from Hawai'i Island's Northern point eastward across the island when I came across this beautiful country land.  It was a gorgeous day and I just had to stop and feel the breeze...and take some pictures.  I was so excited about these pictures, however, unbeknownst to me, I still had the picture quality setting on my camera set to low.  But it was a fascinating place situated randomly along the tiny road I as travelling.  It was God's country for sure.

In the background of the next picture you can see all the way to Maui.  Rising above the clouds is Maui's East Volcano: Haleakala.  You may remember it from earlier posts where I biked down it. Maui Island and Hawai'i Island are 30 miles away from each other at their closest shore-to-shore distances.

The Dave and Smess hanging out while I satisfy my curiosity of climbing up a hill.

I found this lonely little post at the top of the hill.

Mahalo for visiting!  Until next time...

Hawai'i Island Time (ie. The Big Island)...

It's Big Island time!  Hawai'i Island (otherwise known as 'the big island') is the largest of all the Hawaiian Islands.  This island alone is over 4,000 square miles, which makes it almost as large as Connecticut and 4 times as large as Rhode Island.  It actually gets larger every day due to volcanic activity.  It's just about the only place on Earth that is outpacing the rising waters from polar ice melting.

Hawai'i Island is a fascinating place to be, and I'm very excited to share parts of my trip with the blogosphere/family and friends.  I loved my trip there.  It has definitely been my favorite part of living in Hawai'i so far.  You'll see why as you see my next few blog posts: volcanos, black sand beach, great views, turtles, great lookouts, astronomy and lava.  I can't wait to show you the lava! (I'm having trouble narrowing down my lava pictures for you all...I took hundreds in my excitement, but I'll try to narrow it down to my favorite 15 or so).

Here are some picture from my first day.  Disclaimer: I'm annoyed with my pictures from my first day on the island.  The next couple posts have some great picture locations, BUT the quality is terrible.  I accidentally had the image quality setting on my camera set for low quality versus the moderate-to-high setting I typically use.  I didn't notice this error until the end of the day, but, alas, I still wanted to share some pictures with all of you (so just pretend they are nice, crisp images).  This mistake reminded me that I'm still very much a novice amateur photographer.  Not that I really aspire to be much more than that, but I'm I little disappointed I made this big of a goof.  I digress.  To the pictures we go:

My fellow travel buddies at the first tiny little black sand beach that we saw: The Dave and Smess

An old catamaran just hanging out in the bushes.

Sailing boat heads out to sea.

I started my trip by flying into Kona on the West side of the island and then drove up the Western coast to the Northern tip.  Along the way was a preserved Hawaiian village.  It had this beautiful landscape of red soil, with palm trees and intermittent blooming flowers.  During our drive we frequently saw whales spouting, but when we stopped at the old village we didn't see any by the coast (the whales continued to hide from us I guess).

Hawaiian Hut

The digs might not afford many of the modern amenities, but the view is pretty awesome, right?

The coast line along the old village shore

There was a little town near the Northern tip called Hawi (Ha-vee).  In Hawi we had lunch, and poked around all the shops.  Calling it a quaint little artsie town is probably the best way to describe it.  Once we were at the Northern tip of the island, we arrived at the Pololu Lookout.  So I'll end this blog with a couple pictures from there.  I particularly love the change in the sea color between the shallow and deeper waters in these pictures.  Mahalo for visiting, and more Big Island Shenanigans to come!