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Yellow Brick Road 5: All Together Now! LbNA #51835 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Dec 3, 2009
Location:
City:Kapaau
County:Hawaii
State:Hawaii
Boxes:1
Planted by:Old2AK
Found by: The GMonies
Last found:Jul 7, 2010
Status:FFaaaa
Last edited:Dec 24, 2015
We're a couple of old geezers who enjoy letterboxing, but who tend to limit our hiding and seeking activity to drive-bys and places that involve easy walks. If we're a long way from home, in a place we might not visit again, we think it's more fun to seek and find easy boxes in several different locations, rather than pursue one hard one. We think our "low impact" letterbox style works work well for families with young children, too.

The Yellow Brick Road series relies on a collection of old, commercially-made rubber stamps that feature characters from The Wizard of Oz. If you get a fairly early start (9 a.m.? 10 a.m.?) you should be able to find all five letterboxes in the series in a pleasant one-day outing that will take you to interesting places you might otherwise not go.

5. ALL TOGETHER NOW!

When you leave the Cowardly Lion letterbox location, continue north along Highway 250. There are a number of ranches in the area, and cattle graze on the slopes of the volcano on either side of the road. Just before Mile 8, there's a scenic viewpoint on the left side of the road, probably worth a quick stop. At about Mile 9, the highway will start down from its 3564' crest, toward the North Kohala coast. If it's fairly clear, at about Mile 14 you will begin to see Haleakala volcano on Maui, about 30 miles off in the distance.

Highway 250 ends at Highway 270 in Hawi; turn right on 270. Hawi has ice cream(!), small shops, restaurants, and art galleries, as does the little town of Kapaau, further east. Stop in Kapaau to see the original King Kamehameha statue. Born in a remote area of this district of Hawaii, Kamehameha the Great (1756-1819) is perhaps Hawaii’s greatest historical figure. He unified the Hawaiian islands under one rule and set the stage for Hawaii's monarchy period.

According to aloha-hawaii.com, American sculptor Thomas Gould was commissioned by the kingdom of Hawaii to create the statue. Gould modeled the figure in his studio in Rome in 1879. A year later, it was cast in bronze in Paris and shipped from Germany. During its voyage to the Islands, however, the ship caught fire and sank off the Falkland Islands. A second statue was cast from the original mold and sent to Honolulu, where King Kalakaua dedicated it in 1883. The original statue was eventually recovered and brought to the Big Island.

Continue east for several miles. Eventually, you'll pass the Rankin Gallery and the little Makapala Chapel, both on the right. At Mile 27, take a left and follow the narrow paved road to Keokea Beach Park. Here, you'll see those "famous sea cliffs of the windward Kohala shoreline" mentioned in the previous clue. This is a beautiful, wild and wooly cove—we wouldn't even THINK about swimming here!—but there are picnic tables, porta-potties, and a nice little hilltop pavilion.

Walk past the big three-trunked tree at the north end of the paved parking lot and continue past the boat launch and breakwater toward a stunted tree that looks like a conifer, complete with small cones and drooping "needles." This is an ironwood tree; despite its appearance, it's not related to pines.

Stand on the east side of the ironwood tree. You'll see part of a buried tire on that side of the tree. Carefully lift the branches. The letterbox is hidden under the large, flattish slab of rock that's leaning against the tree trunk. We've placed a roundish, porous-looking rock in front of the box, to hide it.

Hooray! You've come to the end of the yellow brick road! After you leave the beach park and return to Highway 270, you may want to take a left and go to the end of THAT road—it dead-ends in just another mile or two, at the Pololu Valley Lookout. We're told the small black sand beach below can be reached after a strenuous hike from the 400-foot-high lookout area, down a long, zigzagging dirt path. Perhaps another day?