Puako, HI

Puakō is a small census-designated place on Hawaiʻi Island's Kohala Coast, with 267 residents at the 2020 census. The Pacific lies to the west, Waikōloa Village is inland to the east, and Hawaiʻi Route 19 forms the main road along the community's mauka edge. The name is commonly translated as sugarcane blossom, but the older landscape reaches deeper: the coast holds fishponds, shoreline trails, caves, habitation sites, and other traces of long Native Hawaiian use of the ahupuaʻa.

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The Puakō Petroglyph Archaeological Preserve is the place's most recognizable landmark. Its 223 acres contain more than 3,000 kiʻi pōhaku, or lava-rock carvings, with some dating back to around 1200. The petroglyph field is part of a protected archaeological district, so it belongs to the cultural landscape of Puakō and is not a decorative stop along a resort road. The village's present-day map remains a narrow coastal community of homes, shoreline access, and a boat harbor, with larger resort services nearby and the ancient stone fields still close at hand.