Punchbowl & Mount Tantalus

After a brief recovery from my travel to Honolulu, I decided to drive up to the Punchbowl and Mount Tantalus. Punchbowl is the cone of a dormant volcano that was used as a cemetery for those killed in World War II. Hawaiians are also buried here. There is a sweeping view from the monument featuring Columbia holding an olive branch, standing on the prow of a US aircraft carrier. Beneath the statue is a famous quote from Abraham Lincoln.

When I was there, some people were paying their respects to the fallen, visiting individual graves to leave flowers or musing over the many mosaics that depict various battles in the Pacific. Here are some images of the mosaics and the general layout of Punchbowl.

After a respectful time of reflection at Punchbowl, I continued up Mount Tantalus for an overview of the Honolulu area. This map indicates the location of the Mt. Tantalus overlook. The following image is a panorama created from 21 images taken looking south. Compare the top image with the one beneath it to identify the six sections of the image. For a closer look at any one, choose it from the gallery below. You can see the famous Diamond Head on the left all the way over to Honolulu airport and Pearl Harbor on the right.

After thoroughly enjoying the vistas from Mt. Tantalus, I drove over toward Diamonhead. You cannot drive into the park at the top without a reservation, which I did not have. However, there is a small overlook and parking area right before entrance to the park. Here are a few images from that location.

Finally, here are all the images suitable for this post. There are a couple more from the drive up Mt. Tantalus, as well as a portrait of the wild chickens, which are the majority population of Kauai! Enjoy.