Contact: 
Onizuka Center for International Astronomy --
Visitor Information Station (V.I.S.) 

Mauna Kea Observatories Support Services 
177 Maka'ala Street 
Hilo, Hawai'i 96720-5108 

Phone on Mauna Kea (808) 961-2180 
Fax on Mauna Kea (808) 969-4892 
Phone in Hilo (808) 935-3371 
Fax in Hilo (808) 969-7673 

Official Web Site

Mauna Kea is slightly higher than its sister peak Mauna Loa which is the world's most massive Mauna Kea is the world's tallest mountain.  It's next to the world's most massive (Mauna Loa). 

This mountain didn't mess around.  There's no cheap tricks like continents colliding to create the the 29,028-foot high Everest.  Mauna Kea just found a hot spot on the ocean floor and grew 31,796 feet over a million years (13,796 feet of it above sea level). 

Mauna Kea will erupt again -- much to the consternation of the nine telescope observatories on its summit.  But this is something it hasn't done in 4,500 years.  But given the peak's steep slopes and "post shield" eruption status, when the mountain goes, it will be quite explosive. 

Neighboring Mauna Loa with its gentler slopes and bigger mass (at 10,000 cubic miles it is said to be the most massive mountain on the planet) is just 115 feet shorter and still growing. 

Mauna Kea means "white mountain" in Hawaiian.  Indeed winter snows and ice can accumulate 500 feet thick and force closure of the road leading to the summit. People ski the slopes!  Glaciers came down the mountain until about 13,000 years ago.  Who would think that Hawaii would have an Ice Age Natural Area Reserve!?. 

Mauna Kea is 186 miles south of Honolulu and can be seen 100 miles away on Maui. 

Although portions of the Big Island have some of the wettest weather on the planet, the summit is extremely dry and cloud free thanks to a tropical inversion cloud layer about 2,000 feet wide encircling the summit at the 9,000 foot level..  This coupled with strict low light ordinances on the island has led to the construction of the huge observatory complex. 

Although the peak is a "drive up" and there seem to be countless tour packages offering sunsets and stargazing on the summit, it is a mountain still to be reckoned with.  Rental car companies prohibit use of their cars on the summit road because it is too rugged (4 wheel drives are o.k. -- Harper's Rent-A-Car in Hilo (808) 969-1478 was listed as a source on a trip report.  The air is thin enough to induce altitude sickness.  Tour groups carry bottled oxygen.  Astronomers acclimate at the 9,500 foot level Onizuka Center for International Astronomy. 

Like almost the premier highpoints, there are native legends. The goddess of lightening and snow, Poliahu, is supposed to live here, and is engaged in earth-shaking rivalries with Pele, who lives not far away inside the Kilauea caldera. 

It's hard to say which god has the biggest following.  But Mauna Kea's  relative inaccessibility  makes Pele the more visited god.  No trip to the Big Island is complete without seeing the eruptions and golden lava roll into the sea at Kilauea in Hawaii National Park, P.O. Box 52, Hawaii National Park, HI 96718, (808) 967-7311. 

Current volcanic activity can be reached at (808) 967-7977 day or night.