Mauna Kea in the Clouds

In this charming and intimate vignette of old-time Hilo, Helen Thomas Dranga validates her legacy as the woman counterpart to D. Howard Hitchcock. Light streams from the eastern sun, casting bold reflections on the water, throwing the clouds into bright relief, and charting the lush foliage’s retreat up the slopes of Mauna Kea.

Looking from Reed's Bay to Mauna Kea, from a vintage artist who lived in Hilo for a short time. Located on Banyan Drive, Reeds Bay Beach Park offers a calm and shallow swimming area. Between 1925 and 1930, coral material was dredged at Hilo Harbor and deposited here. Sailboats anchor in the waters offshore, and other smaller boats are launched from shore. The beach park is named after William H. Reed, a prominent businessman on the Big Island who arrived here in the 1840s and died in 1880.