Two legendary hotels on Hawaii’s Big Island

Hikers make their way through the Thurston Lava Tube in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island. Lava tubes are natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow, expelled by a volcano during an eruption.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on Hawaii‘s Big Island reopened early this year after a two-year renovation that reduced the room count from 310 to 258.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

A seventh-floor ocean-view room deliver big vistas at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel on Hawaii‘s Big Island.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The Kaunaoa Beach on Hawaii‘s Big Island, seen from the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, is public, so hotel guests and nonguests mingle on the sand.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The Mauna Kea Hotel on Hawaii‘s Big Island features more than 1,600 items from an Asian art collection assembled by hotel founder Laurance Rockefeller.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Though the 42-room Volcano House hotel on Hawaii‘s Big Island dates back to the 19th century, the main building was rebuilt in 1941 after a fire.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Volcano House, a hotel on the edge of the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, offers 42 rooms.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The Waimea Gardens Cottage, a bed and breakfast, features three units in the Big Island town of Waimea.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Inside one of the units of the Waimea Gardens Cottage.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The Kilauea Lodge, in the Hawaiian Big Island village of Volcano, offers 12 rooms at rates that typically run $170 to $225.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

A room at the Kilauea Lodge.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

The Ishigo’s building anchors the main drag in the town on Honomu, north of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

As Hawi Turns, a shop in the tiny town of Hawi on Hawaii‘s Big Island, offers items including reproductions of vintage postcards.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Akaka Falls, the main attraction in Akaka Falls State Park north of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, measures more than 400 feet.   (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)

Ramona Gaspar lends the landscape some color as she lays out jewelry for sale at a turnout at the south end of Hawaii‘s Big Island.  (Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)