Pololu Valley

On the Big Island of Hawaii, go as far north as you can to the end of the road. We needed a hike, this is unfortunately a very short one. There is only about 500 feet of elevation change from the trailhead lookout to the water's edge. The trail is a bit steep, maybe a half-mile, but not much different from the trail back home on High School Butte that we do when we don't have enough time to get some real exercise. This is a busy place, there were 15-20 cars at the trailhead, parking space is a bit of a challenge; I imagine it is really crazy during peak tourist season.

We did hike up a trail on the ridge on the far end of the beach. We were hoping for some killer views, but unfortunately the trail ended at a locked gate. The good news was we got another 500 feet of uphill at that end as well.  Here is the view from the lookout looking up the Pololu Valley.

Some of the views at the waters edge really reminded us of the NaPali coast of Kauai.

 
The northern end of the big island is quite scenic, and a lot more low key than the heavily tourist-oriented Kona coast. We liked it. Driving back to the condo, we scored a really nice sunset.