A view of Kohala Mountain, and beyond it Maui, taken from the slopes of Mauna Kea.
View toward Kohala and Maui
2 Replies
Category Archives: Weather
Where there’s smoke
I work at Hapuna on the South Kohala coast and typically, during the day, clouds build up to the north and east until Kohala Mountain, Mauna Kea, and Mauna Loa are obscured. That was the case a few days ago when I noticed a dense, dark patch rolling down the hill from Waimea. My first thought was that this was rain headed my way, but it looked odd. It proved to be smoke, a fact soon confirmed when the smell filled the air.
The smoke came from a brush fire, 30 miles away, in the vicinity of Pa’auilo on the Hamakua coast. Tradewinds blew the smoke over the saddle at Waimea and on down towards the ocean. The fire consumed about 1,400 acres of brush and eucalyptus trees before it was contained late the next day. The cause of the fire is under investigation, but it’s been remarkably dry for quite a while so the fire danger is currently high.
The top two photos show smoke blotting out Kohala Mountain, the second one being taken 15 minutes after the first. (Compare this with the hillside under normal circumstances here.) The bottom photo, taken a little way north of Kawaihae, shows the plume of smoke over the ocean with clear skies to the north of it.
Mice?
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Celestial.’ See more responses here.
I don’t know what happened. The last time I looked, the moon was full and round. But not here. I think the mice got to it!
Kohala clouds
Driving home from work I saw this scene in front of me on the hill leading towards Hawi. It was such a striking example of the weather around here that I was moved to pull over and take a couple of photos.
The top photo shows the blue skies and scattered white clouds I’d been working under all day, and was standing under to take the photo. The gray band is wind-driven, low cloud being blown from east to west along the northern coast of the island, and blotting out the sun in this area. Under this band it was raining and visibility was poor. The cloud is channeled in this way by the northern shoulder of Kohala Mountain. As the band moved out over the ocean it became less pronounced as it dissipated.
Turning to my right, I took the bottom photo, a rainbow formed by the sun at my back and moisture tumbling over the mountain’s shoulder.
Road trip to Hawaii Tropical Bioreserve and Garden
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Favorite Vacation Spot.’ See more responses here.
It’s been a long while since I took a vacation, but a favorite day out is a road trip to the east side of the island and a visit to Hawaii Tropical Bioreserve & Garden.
The day starts with a drive out of Hawi, up the hill to Kohala Mountain Road. This winding road climbs to around 3,500 feet before descending into Waimea. One the way, it passes through pastureland that is home to cattle, horses, and sheep.
Horse riders near Kohala Mountain Road. 
A view of Kohala Ranch with Kohala Mountain Road on the right. 
A Pueo flying.
A few miles after driving through Waimea, there’s a left turn onto Old Saddle Road. These days, the main road across the island is a smooth, wide thoroughfare, but it’s not so long ago that the highway was all like Old Saddle Road – narrow and twisting. In those days, rental car companies would not allow their cars to be driven on that road. Old Saddle Road is the last remnant of the original road and it’s one of my favorite roads to drive here, not just because of the road’s qualities, but because it’s one of the most reliable places to see pueos, the Hawaiian short-eared owl. On this road I drive like one of those people you follow and say ‘What the !@^%$@)&^ is that idiot doing?’ I’m prone to zipping off the tarmac and bolting from the car, camera in hand, snapping photos as I go.
A view of Pōhakuloa Training Area and Mauna Kea State Recreation Area. 
A section of the Pu’u O’o trail.
Old Saddle Road joins the new highway a just before it reaches Pohakuloa Training Area, a large military base in the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. It’s not unusual to hear the sound of shells exploding here as they do live ammunition fire. Past this area, there are several good hiking trails that venture into the high elevation landscape. This is one of the best areas for seeing native birds that are still hanging on in much reduced habitat.
After that, there’s the descent into Hilo and then a jog north to the garden where, every time I visit, I see something different, something that wasn’t blooming on previous visits or that I’d just missed in the profusion wonderful plants to see.
Pink anthurium 
Erythrina crista galli 
Painted bamboo 
Onomea Falls 
Orchid 
Spider lily by the ocean
And on the way back there’s a good chance that there’ll be a splendid sunset to be enjoyed.
Also posted for this week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Road Trip.’ See more responses here.
Gray days
This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Gray.’ See more responses here.
The top photo is finally getting scheduled after being lined up for a previous Sunday Stills challenge with the theme of ’emerging.’ I was walking along the coast on a damp, gray day, when I heard a noise out over the water. I couldn’t see anything, but the noise got louder. Finally, this helicopter emerged out of the clouds. It looked like a military helicopter, which would have been the most likely thing flying in those conditions, and which tend to be louder than the average helicopter.
In the second photo, a pair of nene chow down on a strip of grass beside Upolu airstrip’s gray tarmac under an equally gray sky.
Abstracts: Rust
This is a view of an old, spherical water tank. It’s used for collecting rain water off the roof of the small building next to it. I liked the peeling paint and patina of the rust on the tank.
Atop Mauna Kea
This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Mountain Top.’ See more responses here.
Mauna Kea is the highest mountain on earth, when measured from its base to its peak. It logs in at 33,476 feet, 13,803 of which are above sea level.
The top photo is a late afternoon view from near the summit of Mauna Kea, with the Subaru Telescope on the left and the two Keck Telescopes to the right. The top of the cloud layer lies a thousand or more feet below them, which is one of the reasons it’s such a prime site for astronomy.
The second photo is a view from Upolu, showing the summit with a lot of snow on it. While this photo was taken in February, the volcano is high enough that snow can fall at any time of year.
