The view from the end of the road in North Kohala is an eye-magnet, encouraging your feet to start walking. In 20 minutes, you can be down there. The green nub on the north end of the Big Island—Kohala— that points toward Maui is a million years older than the island's southern volcanic slopes, whose shores have been widened by fresh lava just htis year. That means Kohala has deep tropical valleys and ridges with waterfalls and no roads—like Kauai's Napali Coast. Most people hang around the beach and don't find the trail that leads to the wilderness. The road ends ..read more

The analogy is obvious: Eight principal Hawaiian islands are adrift in a universe of ocean, just as our eight planets (sorry Pluto) are isolated in a universe of space. The first Polynesians, from the Marquesas, arrived perhaps as early as 200 A.D. Back-and-forth migrations from a second wave of Polynesians from Tahiti took place until around 1300 A.D., at which point newcomers stopped arriving and the Hawaiians were alone in their world until the late 1700s. That's when Western Civilization arrived in the form of British Captain James Cook. Having brought a few dozen plants and a few an ..read more

After 15 months of battling massive landslides (courtesy the Biblical rainfall of April 2018 ), state highway officials have opened the road to the Kalalau Trail and the Napali Coast. This last two-miles of the highway—in Haena State Park—is the island's 'South Pacific" eye-candy. But, as they say, certain restrictions apply: The road isn't completely open, and it's now open to far fewer people. To enter the state park, permits are now required, available online—and visitors are limited to 900 per day. In recent years, this part of Kauai was getting pounded daily by 3,000 adventure seekers. F ..read more

Two hundred years ago, when the Hawaiian ali'i (royalty) ruled the Islands, Maui was prized for its northwest shore—where Kamehameha set up the capital (in Lahaina). Along this coast, a series of mountain valleys send streams into a small bays–accented by a pearl necklace of white sand beaches. Maui is the Valley Isle. Big surprise: Today this coast is packed with resorts and condos and a conga line of rental cars. But no so for Launikopoko Valley. This baby is close to pristine. At the foot of the valley is Launikopko Beach, a sweet picnic, surf, and snorkel park that is on the tourist ra ..read more

Amanda Eller miraculously was found alive last week after enduring 17 days in the rainforest on Maui. Her story is about the enduring power of the human spirit, and also about hundreds of good people looking for her who were not going to give up—no matter what. Note: As of May 30, a second Maui hiker, Noah 'Kekai' Mina, remains missing after climbing a ridge 10 days ago above Iao Valley. Godspeed to the rescue teams looking for him, and aloha nui to the family and friends of this beloved local man. Update: On May 31, Noah's body was recovered. He suffered a fall. The island mourns. Read on ..read more

Let's start with the finish: Until you've seen Hilo, you really haven't seen the Big Island of Hawaii. This is where most people of Hawaiian descent live and where the lush tropical greenery is astounding.  The downside—and the reason it's so beautiful—is that it rains like a big dog, about 200 inches per year. A former downside—volcanic smog, called vog—is no longer present, since the volcano goddess Pele put a cork in her blowhole earlier this year, revealing blue skies for the first time in about 30 years. Another former downside that is no longer present is the long drive from Kona. Now ..read more

Most people's image of Waikiki Beach on Oahu is summarized by a thousand words in the photo above: lot's of tender flesh elbow to jowl on a strip of artificial sand backed by square blocks of high-rise resorts, designed shops, eateries, and weirdness run amok. And that image is pretty much true. (And what's wrong with that?) But the roots of Hawaii literally run through the place, on the Waikiki Historic Trail. You can bus in from the airport and spend a vacation on foot and riding trolleys. Not far away is Diamond Head, Waikiki's world-famous landmark, which is actually a crater. A quirky ..read more

Rivers of flowing lava met the ocean on the Big Island's Puna (southeast) Coast in 2018, adding hundreds of new acres. But you'd never guess of these fiery origins on the Hamakua (northeast) Coast, where dozens of cascades create a seaside botanical garden. A footbridge Akaka Falls State Park (above) gets you into the center of the show. Water from Mauna Kea's slopes thunders over a 500-foot  precipice at Akaka. You can take sections of the Old Mamalahoa Highway to get off the tourist track on this coast and see a number of other whitewater streams and falls. In the north, Kalopa State ..read more

Waipio Valley, on the north end of the Big Island, is where Kamehameha grew up Last summer, movie star-king Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson announced plans to team with director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future) and screenwriter Randall Wallace (Braveheart) to make a blockbuster called The King, depicting the life of Hawaii's first monarch of all the islands—Kamehameha the Great. A good match for the trio at first glance: Johnson is of Polynesian decent and he's a large man, though, at 6'5", he's about a foot shorter than Kamehameha; Zemeckis can go 'back to the future'  to show how Hawaiian hi ..read more