Near the lovely Anaeho 'omalu Bay Beach is the site of the elegant Sheraton Royal Waikoloa Resort. Bordering its golf course is a vast petroglyph field of pahoehoe lava, a portion of the Ala Loa, or King's Highway. By last count, the island of Hawaii has over 70 petroglyph sites. These rock carvings show up especially well on pahoehoe lava and are sometimes an inch or so in depth.

There are three subject categories in Hawaiian petroglyphs: the descriptive, the symbolic, and the cryptic. The descriptive category is the most commonly recognized and are found to deal mainly with variations in the anthropomorphic image. Next in frequency of occurrence would be the dots and circles, also demonstrating great variation in styles, followed by a small number of significant man-made objects and animals of importance to the early Hawaiians.

Human figures are often clearly represented with features that distinguish them by gender while other human forms suggest supernatural beings, many of these depicted with fantastic heads or headdresses. Note the curious "copyright" mark in the upper right corner of this photo.