We headed north out of the resort, and then took the loop road around the northern point of the island. The western outbound road stays at a lower elevation along the coastline and is dry, desert like climate, with dry grass and scrub brush, typical of the leeward side of all the islands.

The return road travels along the ridge line or slightly west of it, at an elevation up to 3700 feet, and you are only a couple miles north of the outbound road along the coast. There are terrific views of the Waikoloa Bay and Kohala Coast area where the resort is located. After we got back down to the Hawaii Loop Highway, we continued easterly around the island.

This is a view of multiple ancient vent cones on the Kohala Mountain Road, looking ESE.

This is a look westward from the Kohala Mountain Road, down towards the ocean. You can see the green turns to brown fairly quickly as you drop down the slope. We are currently about 3,000 feet high, and only about 4 miles from the ocean.

A closer look at one of the ancient vent craters.

Looking down the dry landscape towards the Kohala Coast and Waikoloa.

Another view towards the ocean and the upper Kohala Coast.

A view down the ridge from 3,500 feet towards the resort area of the Kohala Coast.

A more close-up view of what may be our resort, but we are not sure of the exact location from this distance. The Hilton Waikoloa Village Resort may be closer to the top of the first picture.

As we descended the ridge towards Waimea, we found the hillsides covered with cactus plants!

More cactus, along with farms and the extremely dry western side landscape that is found on all the islands….