Waimea is cowboy country, and that is a strange thing to find on a tropical island. The town, also known by its postal name Kamuela, lies on a high, cool, windy plateau at about twenty-five hundred feet, between the Kohala Mountains and the huge bulk of Mauna Kea. The land is open grass, dotted with eucalyptus windbreaks, cattle and horses, and on a misty morning it looks a lot more like Scotland or Wyoming than Hawaii.
The ranching tradition goes back to the early nineteenth century, when cattle were brought to the island and ran wild until Mexican and Spanish vaqueros were brought over to teach the Hawaiians how to handle them. The Hawaiian cowboys became known as paniolo, a word derived from español, and their saddles, ropes and slack-key guitar music are all part of the heritage. The Parker Ranch, founded in the 1840s by a sailor named John Palmer Parker, grew into one of the largest ranches in the United States. Waimea has a cattle culture that you can taste in the local beef.
For a rider arriving from Hilo on the Saddle Road, the town is a good reward. After a long traverse through lava fields and cloud, you drop into green pastures, the air warms up and smells of grass, and the first stores appear. The road is paved and the bends are long, so the ride is easy, but the wind can be strong, and rain showers come in from the east without much notice. Take care in the evening, when mist can reduce visibility, and watch for cattle and wild pigs on rural roads.
Waimea is the main town on this side of the island, with about nine thousand people, which means it has everything you need, including fuel stations, supermarkets, cafes and restaurants. Fill up here, because there is little else for long stretches in either direction. Farmers' markets on weekends sell vegetables, flowers and Big Island coffee, and it is a good place to try a plate of local beef. From here, the road continues down to the sunny, dry Kohala coast, a world away, with beaches and resorts, only twenty minutes down the hill.