The Hawaiian Islands
The folks at HostelBookers.com came up with a great idea for sharing stories and photos, and one of my online friends, travel blogger Kathryn of TravelWithKat.com encouraged me to join in the fun. So, here I am taking part in HostelBookers 7 Super Shots. 1. A photo that takes my breath away: The Na Pali Coast on the island of Kauai is truly spectacular. Fly along the coast on a helicopter tour, take a Zodiac or kayak into coves and caves, hike [read more ...]
One of the most popular things to do on the island Maui is watching the sunrise from the rim of Haleakala crater. Almost everyone goes right to the summit viewpoint. Much less crowded and just as spectacular is the view from Kalahaku Overlook. This view, looking north instead of east to the sunrise, shows the prominent cinder cones in the crater (technically speaking, it’s a caldera, not a crater). On the upper right, Sliding Sands Trail is visible, leading to [read more ...]
Alau Island at sunrise, Hana Coast, Maui. After negotiating 600 curves and 54 bridges on the narrow, winding 52 miles of Hana Highway, a lot of visitors to Maui just spend a couple of hours in Hana town, make the obligatory stop at Hasegawa General Store, then turn around and head back to the resorts on the south side of the island. That’s a shame, because some the best parts of the Hana Coast, and some of the most scenic [read more ...]
The Big Island of Hawaii was my home for a number of years and is still one of my favorite destinations. Largest of all the Hawaiian Islands, it contains a full range of environments from arid desert to tropical rainforest. Plentiful rainfall on the Hamakua Coast and in the Hilo area – the northeast side of the island – makes for lush forest and a number of waterfalls that are great subjects for nature photography. Best of known of the [read more ...]
Madame Pele has been putting on a spectacular show the past few days at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This is a new phase of an eruption in the east rift zone of Kilauea volcano on the the island of Hawaii that has been going on since 1983. Most of the eruptive activity has been from a single vent, named Pu’u O’o, but this new activity is a fissure eruption and is causing a lot of excitement for the geologists that [read more ...]
National Geographic Traveler magazine recently rated coastal destinations all over the world, with a ranking based on, among other things, environmental health and visitor experience. I am very pleased to find that two of my favorite coasts are among the top-rated. Both the Oregon Coast and the Na Pali Coast on Kauai are, according to the magazine, “In excellent shape, relatively unspoiled and likely to remain so.” The rugged and remote Na Pali coast is one of the scenic wonders [read more ...]
Each year for the past twenty years, Professor Stephen Leatherman, aka “Dr. Beach“, names what he thinks are the best beaches in the United States. I don’t think there’s ever been a year that at least one beach in Hawaii made his list, and for 2010 he includes Kahanamoku Beach on Oahu and Hamoa Beach on the island of Maui. Kahanamoku Beach, named for Olympic swimmer and Hawaiian surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku, is the stretch of Waikiki Beach between the [read more ...]
A couple of magazines feature my photography on the cover this month. VIA, the magazine of the AAA auto club, assigned me to shoot a story on the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area and nearby Florence, Oregon. For the cover, they chose a shot of a couple of guys jumping off a dune face along the John Dellenbach Trail in the Umpqua Dunes Area. Just so happens that the two guys are my son Hunter and his friend Tom Clawson. [read more ...]
Many years I lived in Hawaii, but never spent much time at Waimanalo, even though I lived in nearby Kailua for a number of years. While on this trip to the Islands, I got a request for photos of Waimanalo Beach, so have been going there for sunrise the past several days. Weather hasn’t been as hoped for, but it’s always wonderful to be on the beach at sunrise in Hawaii. On the day I took this photo, the sky [read more ...]
Living in Hawaii for many years, I was fortunate to travel and photograph extensively around the islands. One of my absolute favorite places is Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park in the South Kona district of the Big Island. A place of refuge in ancient times, the restorations and recreations of temples, ki’i (carved wooden images) and royal fishpond make this one of the best places in the islands to get a feel for the culture of Hawaii in pre-Captain [read more ...]
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