HAWAII'S RUSTIC SIDE BEACH CAMP AT MOLIKAI RANCH IS FREE OF TRADITIONAL RESORT TRAPPINGS.

MAUNALOA, Hawaii - There's something vaguely incongruous about many beach-resort settings in Hawaii. Here you are in a land of great natural beauty and wonder, and yet many of the resorts have taken pains to create an artificial environment, with air-conditioned rooms in high-rise towers, garish sculpture, transplanted tropical greenery that was precisely arranged by a designer, and pools, waterfalls and man-made lagoons that are rimmed with trucked-in sand.

To achieve an experience that is more in touch with the natural landscape - but without sacrificing basic tourist comforts - escape to the little-trafficked island of Molokai, and specifically to a remote beach camp on its extreme west end.

Here, the Molokai Ranch & Lodge offers a unique lodging experience at Kaupoa Beach. It might not be for everyone, but a Hawaii traveler who has stayed in a hotel and stayed in a condo and is looking for something a little different - simple and extremely secluded - is probably going to love this place.

There are no hotel wings here, just tentlike bungalows - steel-frame enclosures draped with canvas atop wooden decks. The shower is heated by the sun, and the stall is partially open-air. The toilet is self-composting. To open a window, you zip up a canvas flap and peer through mosquito netting. Wild turkeys roam the grounds. The dining pavilion has no walls whatsoever.

And civilization, or what passes for it - the tiny former plantation town of Maunaloa - is eight miles away by dirt road.

This is a kind of Hawaii that was probably experienced by some of the early visitors in the 19th century, people such as Mark Twain and Jack London. At night, the scene is entirely lit by tiki torches and the moon, which combine to create long shadows of palm trees and rock outcroppings. The surf slams into black-lava rocks with a pounding fury. The nearest light pollution is 40 miles away across open ocean - in Oahu - so the sky is a glorious display of stars.

At dinner, as you sit at a torch-lit table on a small promontory overlooking the beach, you're caressed by gentle tradewinds and drink in the scent of salt spray. At one point, the chef might appear out of the darkness to ask if you want more broiled ahi filet or beef tenderloin before he shuts down the charcoal grill for the night.

Although life at the 40-bungalow encampment is closer to the natural world, this is by no means a primitive lodging experience. It's extraordinarily comfortable - a bit like camping with a staff. It's just short on frills.

And as you drift off to sleep in a queen-sized bed, gazing at the heavens through a large, mosquito-screened opening in the tent wall, you find that you don't really miss the fact that there is no phone, no blender and umbrella drinks, no Polynesian variety show, no need for dressy attire (or, for that matter, shoes) in the evening. You still get daily maid service, and someone else cooks all the food.

The beach camp, and the more conventional accommodations at the plantation-themed Molokai Ranch Lodge in Maunaloa, represent the latest commercial manifestation of this dry, western end of one of the least-populated islands in the Hawaiian chain.

The ranch was established by Kamehameha V in 1863, at a time when salt beef was in extreme demand for the sailors on whaling ships. Just before the turn of the 20th century, some Honolulu entrepreneurs attempted a sugar operation here, but it failed, and in the 1920s a pineapple plantation was launched, overseen by George P. Cooke.

The enterprise, alternately filling cans for the labels of Libby, Dole and Del Monte, had a long and productive run. But in the 1980s, as on the neighboring island of Lanai, pineapple farming began to lose its cost effectiveness when confronted by cheaper-running operations in the Philippines, and the Cooke family sold out to Brierley Investments of New Zealand. Although a small ranching operation is still maintained on the 54,000-acre spread, a more promising future was seen in the herding of tourists.

The sprawling open spaces attract travelers seeking solitude and peace, but they are also inviting to those who want to mix in some active pursuits. The ranch can accommodate both desires.

We saddled up one morning for a two-hour trail ride that is conducted for guests at the beach camp (when enough people sign up, the ranch also operates a paniolo roundup - a kind of ``City Slickers''-in-paradise indulgence).

For the first half of the ride, we wandered through a hot, dusty, red- dirt world broken only by scraggly kiawe trees and the sun-bleached bones of the occasional unfortunate axis deer. Both serve as examples of the folly of upsetting an island environment. ``Kiawe'' is the Hawaiian word for mesquite; the trees, common to the Texas plains, were given as a gift to a long-ago island royal, and they flourished here like weeds. The deer (seven, to begin with) were a gift from a Japanese dignitary. With no natural predator, they multiplied like insects.

We spotted about eight deer bounding through the underbrush on our ride. They have reason to be skittish - the locals hunt them to keep the numbers thinned out.

The real payoff was in the second half of the ride. Guides Chinky Hubbard and Tamara Cavanaugh led us down a path on which we could first smell and then feel the cool breezes off the ocean. Soon, we were riding along a deserted white-sand beach, gazing at the frothy breakers rolling ashore.

The trail skirted the ocean all the way back to the beach camp, giving us several memorable views of quiet coves.

Cavanaugh had assured us these horses were used in ranch and rodeo activities, and were not ``dead heads,'' but in fact they were extremely gentle and well-mannered, each quite content to follow the rump of the horse in front of him at a leisurely walk. Thus it was the classic - but pleasant and unthreatening -tourist trail ride.

Another popular activity in a land so wide-open is mountain biking. Trails crisscross the ranch, and they are well-marked, not only in terms of direction but in degree of difficulty.

On our first full day on Molokai, having spent the first night up at the lodge, we opted for a popular, moderate activity: the eight-mile gravity ride. As our bags were carried to the beach camp by one of the regular-running shuttle vans, we hopped aboard bikes for an off-road ride to the coast with guide Josh Pastrana.

The son of a pineapple plantation worker, he's now making a living in the tourism trade. That means assessing the ability levels of his riders and choosing a biking course accordingly. For a group of strict novices, he'll wheel gently down the main road to the beach. He felt our group of four could handle something a little more challenging, and soon we were wheeling through ruts and boulder-strewn ravines on trails with names such as Shoo Fly and Lonely Boy.

It's all downhill, but that can give some riders a false sense of invincibility. A young woman on our ride got a little too heavy-handed with her front brake while knifing into a streambed, and tumbled into a nasty, pedals-over-handlebars spill. Fortunately, she suffered only some bumps and scrapes - plus a bruise to her ego, since she'd spent the entire ride telling us how experienced an off-road cyclist she was.

Other activities include ocean kayaking, cultural hikes and, in keeping with ranch tradition, clay-pigeon shooting.

Of course, any trip to Hawaii should also include plenty of time for relaxation, and the ranch has that covered, too.

At the beach camp are several hammocks slung between palm trees. It's easy to lose track of time in one of those in the afternoon. Each two-unit tent enclosure also has its own sun deck, with a couple of padded loungers. Down by the beach, thatched umbrellas shade wooden sand chairs.

Up at the lodge, meanwhile, there is an infinity pool that is kept decadently warm. Its dark-painted bottom gives the sense of a lava pool in a mountain grotto.

The lodge also has a broad veranda that looks over a vast expanse of open range land. If the weather gets cool or wet and forces you inside, you'll find an inviting great room with a towering ceiling, a stone fireplace and a semicircular sweep of windows facing the plain. The furniture is comfortable, some leather pieces, some rattan, and the walls display items from the ranch's heyday: saddles, lariats, hats, harness rigging.

While the dining fare at the beach is strictly beach cookout, with most items served buffet-style, there is a respectable restaurant at the lodge, as well as a welcoming, veranda-level bar whose walls feature black-and-white photos of the Cooke ranching days. And the hallway that connects them holds an impressive collection of framed Hawaiian sheet music from the early 20th century - including a lot of hapahaole stuff, some of it frankly insulting, such as Al Jolson's ``Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula'' from 1915.

The town of Maunaloa is as unpretentious as the accommodations at the ranch and beach camp, with one main street, a general store, a movie theater, a few shops and eateries.

Molokai is said to be the Friendly Isle, and we found that this is not simply a slogan dreamed up by the visitors' bureau. People waved to us whether we were driving, riding or on foot. When we went into commercial establishments, we didn't sense that they were private clubs, with a high level of courtesy for local patrons and sullen demeanor for tourists (a condition all too prevalent in the population centers of other islands).

Before heading to Kaupoa Beach for a stay at the camp, it's probably a good idea to stop at the folksy Maunaloa General Store to stock up on a few provisions.

Breakfast is included with your room rate at the beach, but I was hugely disappointed to find that the fruit selection was no different than you'd find at a Marriott breakfast buffet in Kansas City - grapes and underripe melon, with not a single wedge of the rich island bounty of guava, papaya, mango, pineapple.

You might also want to stock up on bottled water at the general store. And if you like a glass of wine with dinner or a cold beer at the end of a dusty horseback ride, make certain you make some selections here before you head down that eight-mile dirt road. There is no bar, no wine list at the beach camp.

What there is, of course, is simplicity. For a night or two, it's kind of fun to step into the enclosure of the solar shower, look out through the open end of its roof into the twilight sky, and pull on a rope cord that unleashes a torrent of blissfully warm, sun-heated water.

It's delightful to slip into a dark-green terry cloth robe afterward and lounge for a moment on your private lanai.

It's remarkable, if you're accustomed to city life, to awaken in the middle of a pitch-black night and realize you have to turn on a flashlight just to locate your bottle of water on the bedside table.

And it will melt every kink of urban stress to while away an afternoon here. One day, an unseasonably heavy and prolonged shower cut loose on the camp, forcing us into our tent. We huddled inside with our books as the storm pounded away, the rattle of raindrops on our heavy-canvas roof competing with the boom of surf against the rocks.

For a short while, at least, Hawaii's more developed world seemed far, far away.

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: From the Molokai airport, Maunaloa, site of the lodge, is about an eight-mile drive on an improved highway. A shuttle is available for $21 per person, round trip, but if you want to explore other points of interest on the island, you might want to rent a car.

COSTS: Guests are assessed a resort fee of $10 per day per room, which covers shuttle transportation between the lodge and beach, Internet access, and local and toll-free phone calls. Activity costs cover a wide range: The gravity bike ride costs $35 per person (which includes rental of mountain bike and helmet); the Kaupoa Beach horseback ride costs $80 per person.

LODGING: Brochure rates for tent bungalows at Kaupoa Beach start at $205 per night, including breakfast. Rates at the 22-room Molokai Ranch Lodge start at $305 nightly. Packages, combining lodging, meals and activities, are available; they're charged per person, double occupancy.

INFORMATION: Call [phone] or visit www.molokairanch.com.

CAPTION(S):

8 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 4 -- color) Meals at Molokai Ranch's Kaupoa Beach encampment, top, are casual, open-air affairs- and the backdrop is unmatched. Guests nod off to sleep at night in sturdy, comfortable, tentlike bungalows, above. For the active-minded, there is mountain biking, left, and horseback riding, right.

(5 -- 7) The pool at the plantation-themed Molokai Ranch Lodge in Maunaloa above, overlooks land that was thick with cattle in the 19th century. At the ranch's beach camp, left, accomodations are simple yet civilized. Guests will find linen sheets, solar showers and sun decks at their tent bungalows. Tourists now make up the main herd on the island, but the area still has some fun with its cattle-ranching heritage below.

(8) Each tent bungalow at Kaupoa Beach has it's own sun deck, where guests can while away an afternoon. The camp is an unpretentious alternative to Hawaii resort life.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

Box: If You Go (see text)