I was a little surprised by the Big Island.  I had been to Maui before and I knew that the Hawaiian islands were created from volcanoes.  But, the big island is only 400k years old versus 4M+ years for Maui.  So the landscape is soooo Sudbury like (wonder if Sudbury should market itself as the Hawaii of the North).  I guess a few hundred thousands years is not enough for vegetation to spring up.

 

The island is like this all along the west side (the dry side).  Basically rock.  Of course, on the wet side it is a lot more lush (just like everywhere else in Hawaii...