This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Road Trippin’.’ See more responses here. Since there aren’t any road trips, in the usual sense of the expression, here on the island, I thought I’d focus on a stretch of road that is one of my favorite drives here.
Old Saddle Road is an 11 mile stretch of the old highway that connected the west side of the island to the east side, through the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. These days, people take the new road, which is wide and smooth and allows drivers to zip along at 80 mph even though the speed limit is 60 mph. I like this highway, too, but the best part of any cross-island trip is always the old highway, which is up and down, winding, and dotted with one lane narrows where culverts pass under the highway (they’re not bridges) to channel the copious amounts of rain away from the road.
This stretch of road is bordered by ranch land, with horses, cattle, and sheep to the fore. There’s also a good variety of wildlife that can be seen in this area. And the weather can be anything from stunning to biblically awful, sometimes within the hour. So here are a few scenes that give an idea of that short, but special drive.
Graham's Island 
Funny, I thought I had commented last week, but I guess I didn’t. Great trip and what a great road. I love the photos of the owl. I’ve yet to see an owl in the wild.
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These owls are quite cooperative, being active during the day. The other owl here is the barn owl, but I haven’t seen any of those because they’re nocturnal.
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Wonderful road trip views. You captured the perspective of the hilly road beautifully and the pueo with its meal was awesome. I recently sat aside on a river watching birds dive in and never caught a decent photo of their meal…did acquire a handle of bug bites for my efforts.
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Glad you liked them. The pueo was pone of those lucky breaks, and no bug bites required!
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Great shots! Lucky ones of the owl, too. Looks like a beautiful road trip.
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It’s fun stretch of road. the owl was a lucky break. I posted about it at https://grahamsisland.com/2019/03/03/mealtime-for-a-pueo/
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Great scenes on this road Graham ! The sunset is incredible!
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There’s always something good to see and the sunsets are often good from here.
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I can imagine that 😊
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Looks like a great road trip!
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Thanks, Dawn. I never tire of driving that stretch of highway.
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Incredibly stunning views of the views along the old Saddle Road, Graham! If we’d had more time in 2018, we would have driven the old road, but the new one was amazing, especially since we drove in the rain from Kona to Hilo at night. Your shots of the Pueo are amazing! Love that white farmhouse scene–very pastoral! Great interpretation of “road trip”!
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Thanks, Terri. Currently the views aren’t so good as there’s another brush fire burning in the area.
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I hope it gets contained soon. Far fewer wildfires so far, but extreme heat is here again.
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I didn’t see smoke today, so I think it must be contained.
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