Sunrise casts soft light on Mauna Kea and the town of Waimea, as seen from Kohala Mountain Road.
Posted in response to this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge, ‘Rise/set.’
Tag Archives: Waimea
Saddle Road corral
As old Saddle Road winds upward from Waimea it passes through ranch land. This corral is clearly a going concern as evidenced by the loading ramps and surrounding fencing, but my eye is always drawn to the weathered ‘Delta Line’ structure. I’m not sure what it once was or what its purpose is now, but it appears to be in regular use.
Besides cattle, this is a good area to see pueo, the endemic Hawaiian short-eared owl.
Yucca
This yucca plant grows beside the road into Waimea. I don’t know exactly which yucca it is, but it’s blooming now. I particularly like the contrasting textures of the soft, creamy flowers and spiky leaves.
Clouds over Waimea
Seen from the lower slopes of Mauna Kea, a blanket of cloud climbs over the Kohala Mountains and Waimea, but Maui is still visible in the background.
Snow on Mauna Kea
Ah Hawaii, a place of golden sandy beaches, warm tropical waters, luxuriant foliage and snow-capped peaks. Wait a minute! Snow? In Hawaii?
It’s true. Here on the Big Island, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are high enough to see snowfall most years. People go up there to ski and tube. There’s a local tradition of driving up the mountain, loading a pickup truck with snow, and then driving back to lower elevations for a snowball fight.
This winter’s first snow fell yesterday. Last year, there was a snowfall in July! This photo is from last winter, taken from Waimea, which as the foreground suggests, is paniolo (cowboy) country.
This is one image where I photoshopped something out, in this case a distracting wire trailing above the building’s roofline.
Cattle and pu’u
Cattle graze on dry grassland near Waimea. A pu’u is a hill or cinder cone in Hawaiian.
