Kamehameha's Coast on the Big Island, you can follow the historic footsteps of Hawaii's legendary ruler … past new luxury resorts, secluded beaches, ancient temples

Sunset, Jan, 1991

At first glance, especially from the highway, the dry, lava-scarred plain edging the Big Island's northwest shoreline looks like any other fast-developing luxury resort area: big new hotels amid acres of green fairway. But take another, closer look. What about that worn rock footpath? Those figures scratched into the lava? Just what are those strange, long walls of mounded stone? Those lava-rock enclosures? Carefully sheltered in the headlong rush to develop this coast are some of the last-and best-remnants of early Hawaiian history.