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View From Here - Hawaii Travel Blog - Hiking & Land Activities

Welcome to View from Here, a travel blog, where I write about living in, traveling about and experiencing Hawaii as a malihini, a 12-year-resident of the Hawaiian Islands. My name is Kim Steutermann Rogers, and you're likely to find blog posts here about food--who doesn't like to eat?--and outdoor adventure. Like hiking through Haleakala on Maui. Diving with manta rays off Hawaii (Big) Island. Snorkeling Shark's Cove on Oahu. And paddling Napali Coast of my home island, Kauai. Not that I'm some, young, adrenaline junkie. Those days are long over. I just enjoy collecting life experiences. And that's why you probably won't find much in the way of shopping here, unless it's about a fantastic, locally-made product--like soap--and the charming, young, single-mother who makes it. Then, I gush on and on. Oh, as a warning, I can sometimes jump on my soap box and write about the realities of marine debris, Hawaii's endangered species--like humpback whales and Hawaiian monk seals--great book discoveries and the wonders of nature. And my dogs.

Total Number of Entries - 60

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My Earth Day Celebration

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Fri 4/26/2013

Destination: Kauai

Hawaii is nature and nature is Hawaii. You've got your turquoise blue ocean with beaches of black, green and red sand. You've got your green mountains striated with hiking trails. Your rivers and streams ripe for kayaking explorations. Waterfalls. Botanical gardens. Nature preserves, wildlife refuges and national parks. With so many choices in which to spend Earth Day, how was it that on Monday, April 22, I found myself sitting in an air conditioned office building with fluorescent lights making my eyes burn?
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Keepers of the Light, Land and Life: A Look at Kilauea Point over 100 Years

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Fri 4/19/2013

Destination: Kauai

As a volunteer at Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge on the north shore of Kauai for many years, my interest and body of knowledge tended toward the wildlife—that is, the science of biology and living things, like monitoring Laysan albatrosses, banding red-tailed tropicbirds and studying visiting humpback whales. I noticed and appreciated the big, white tower in the middle of Kīlauea Point with its priceless “crown jewel” sitting on top, but I left the intricate details of the second-order Fresnel lens and its mysterious inner workings to people more interested in engineering and that kind of science. Then, I was asked to write a book in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Kīlauea Lighthouse this May 1, 2013, and in doing so, I learned a whole host of cool, new facts.
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The Stories of Makapuu Point Lighthouse Trail

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 1/30/2013

Destination: Oahu

But in addition to stats and photographs, the paved hiking trail that switchbacks up Makapuu in one big “z” holds stories. Like the one about the distinctive opening of Koko Crater, known as Kohelepelepe, which translates to English as “traveling vagina.” The story goes that the clever goddess Kapo exposed her private bits in order to save her sister Pele from the clutches of Kamapuaa, the pig god. Is anyone surprised that this diversion tactic worked? To celebrate, Kapo left her mark—the rocky cliff in the shape of, well, you get the idea.
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40th Annual Honolulu Marathon Moments

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Sun 12/9/2012

Destination: Oahu

The first time tears pooled in the corners of my eyes was at the intersection of Ala Moana Boulevard and Piikoi. The skies had just darkened again after a round of fireworks lit up the pre-dawn Waikiki morning to celebrate the start of the 40th Honolulu Marathon. Big, burly guys with bullhorns hollared for bystanders to clear the road because the first racers were rolling through downtown Honolulu and about to round the corner. And I do mean rolling. A phalanx of bicyclists escorted the wheelchair racers through the 26.2-mile course. The crowd responded with cheers, a kind of verbal fist bump, and I teared up as a blur of wheels whizzed past me.
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Makauwahi Cave Curiosities

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Tue 12/4/2012

Destination: Kauai

December 2nd was the first Sunday of the month, and so I found myself along Kauai’s south shore at Makauwahi Cave Reserve doing some docent work. Docent: That’s simply a title that gives me permission to talk. A lot. I get asked many questions at Makauwahi Cave Reserve, because the place doesn’t fit most people’s image of tropical Hawaii. In turn, it generates curiosity and wonder and a multitude of questions.
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Rubbernecking at Kilauea Volcano

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Fri 10/26/2012

Destination: Hawaii Island

On my last visit a few weeks ago, Halemaumau Trail was closed at the seam where the trail’s descent through a shady rainforest met up with the desolate crater floor, a demarcation line as distinct as blue and red in this upcoming election. A few years ago, a lava lake at the southeastern end of Halemaumau Crater started to generate excitement. It split open the crater floor and has grown to nearly 500 feet in diameter and more than 600 feet deep. This “pit within a pit” is the reason for the glow that is visible after sunset from the Jagger Museum. This week, I read that the level of this lava lake was rising quickly and threatened to flood the floor of Halemaumau Crater.
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Cheating Death inside Halemaumau Crater

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Tue 10/2/2012

Destination: Hawaii Island

Halemaumau Trail at Volcanoes National Park starts at the historic Volcano House hotel and drops 425 feet to the crater floor in less than one mile. It’s known as the oldest of the park’s many hiking trails and likely the very same one that Mark Twain and Isabella Bird descended in 1866 and 1873, respectively. That’s all I needed to hear.
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Hiking inside Haleakala Crater. Part Three.

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 9/19/2012

Destination: Maui

By now, you know I made it down Haleakala on Maui. The question that remains is how. My comedian readers would say that I made it down the slopes of Haleakala one step at a time, and that I did. The descent out of Haleakala Crater from our cabin in Paliku to Kaupo descended a healthy 6,130 feet over 8.6 miles, and it appears that even trimming my toenails and buying hiking shoes one size too big wasn’t enough to prevent what athletes call turf toe.
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Hiking inside Haleakala Crater. Part two.

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Fri 9/14/2012

Destination: Maui

So, there I was, four o’clock in the afternoon on a rainy September Sunday, 10 miles by foot from the nearest paved road. Sitting in a wilderness cabin the size of my living room at 6,380-foot elevation inside the dormant volcano known as Haleakala on Maui. No cell service to call my mother and say we’d hadn’t died on the trek the day before. No wi-fi to check my email. No electricity to charge any electronics whatsoever.
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Hiking inside Haleakala Crater. Part One.

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Mon 9/10/2012

Destination: Maui

Haleakala is famous for its sunrises. Visitors head up the mountain in the black of night in order to witness the sun crawl up and over the tallest mountain on Maui, a dormant volcano, a sight considered by some to be an otherworldly experience. At 10,023-foot elevation, the black of night also delivers a spectacular star show, an added bonus, not quite as famous as its Mauna Kea neighbor, also peaking above the clouds, on Hawaii (Big) Island. But spectacular all the same.
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