Aerial Pictures of Hawaii’s Big Island

Narrative

Whenever I fly between the Hawaiian Islands I like to book flights on Mokulele Airlines because of the small single prop airplanes that they fly:

These planes may be slower to travel around the islands compared to the modern airliners flown by Hawaiian Airlines, but they do give passengers great aerial views of the islands.  The island that I most recently visited, Hawaii’s Big Island is unfortunately the one I have the least aerial pictures of since the plane lands so quickly at the Kona International Airport on the island’s west coast.  I was however able to get a few pictures of the Big Island’s major volcanoes from the airplane.  In the below picture the Kohala Mountains can be seen which is actually the eroded remains of an extinct volcano that rises 5,480 feet above the ocean:

This next picture on the far left once again shows the Kohala Mountains while on the right the highest peak in Hawaii, the 13,796 foot Mauna Kea volcano can be seen rising above the clouds:

You can read about my hike up Mauna Kea during my visit to the Big Island at the below link:

• Best Hikes In Hawaii: Mauna Kea’s Humuula Trail

As the plane continued on towards the Big Island I could see the two giant volcanoes of Mauna Kea on the left and the 13,679 foot active volcano Mauna Loa on the right:

As the plane neared the airport I had a good view of the 8,271 foot Hualalai which is also considered an active volcano:

Here is a view of an industrial area and solar farm that lies below the Hualalai volcano:

Here is a view of the Kona International Airport that sits just above the industrial area:

Like most areas along the Kona Coast, the airport is built in an old lava flow from the Hualalai volcano that towers over the area to the east:

Conclusion

As I previously mentioned the photo opportunities from Mokulele Airlines of the Big Island are quite limited and thus why in the future I plan to do a helicopter tour of the Big Island.  Until then my flight on Mokulele Airlines served to be a nice introduction to Hawaii’s Big Island.