WHERE: Highway 250, Kohala Mountain Road, Big Island.

WHAT'S INTERESTING: This 20-mile stretch from Kapa'au to Waimea town is touted as the prettiest drive in the Islands, and with good reason. On a recent excursion to the Big Island, my brother and I went into Hawi and Kapa'au just quickly, to pick up something I'd seen in a shop on another day and decided I just had to have. Stopping by another shop, we fell into conversation with the manager and I asked if we had to return to Kawaihae to get up to Waimea, where I hoped to go to Merriman's Restaurant for lunch. "Oh, no," she said, pointing just a short distance up the road, "You turn right right there and you will see the most beautiful stretch of road in Hawai'i." We turned where directed and thereafter couldn't stop exclaiming, stopping to take pictures and exclaiming some more.

DETAILS: During this drive, you rise to the 3,000-foot level, starting in a neighborhood of gracious old houses, ascending to expansive ranchlands and descending slightly as you come into Waimea town. The views are incredible: rolling meadows, deep gullies, cows and horses grazing, cowboys in trucks and ATVS hard at work, the occasional country house to fill you with envy. I'm an enthusiastic photographer of flowers, and there were wildflowers everywhere.

WHERE TO EAT: Merriman's wasn't open for lunch on Sunday, so we stopped at Daniel Thiebaut, a Waimea restaurant I've always wanted to visit but never managed to. At midday on a Sunday, they were doing a brunch, and brother and I were quite impressed: awesome sweet-sour spareribs, a pipikaula-potato salad that was one of the best ideas I've ever encountered, and a killer garlic poke. Brunch is $18.50 per person. Hours on Sundays are 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m., 65-1259 Kawaiahae Road; (808) 887-2200.

ANOTHER ROUTE: You can always descend from Waimea to Kapa'au. If you do, try Bamboo Restaurant in Kapa'au. They serve lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch (closed Mondays), and slack-key master John Keawe plays often evenings; (808) 889-5555; it's right on the main road, Akone Pule Highway, in a historic old general store.

Reach Wanda A. Adams at wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.