Above The Clouds: Mauna Kea rises up above the clouds in this view nearly 100 miles away on the top of Maui's Haleakala.  The fact the summit is "rough" rather than the smooth Mauna Loa summit is another indication of the volcano entering the post-shield phase.

Summit Cairn: The rock cairn on the summit has been embellished with people leaving gifts.

Another Hazard on Saddle Road: Saddle Road between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa is "the most dangerous road in Hawaii."  Here's another hazard -- Army artillery practice.  Mauna Kea rises in the background.  You can see the tree line.

Leave Stones Unturned: It's a widespread practice on the Island to rearrange the volcanic rocks into formations.  Along highways, people write graffiiti with white coral against the lava flows.  It's all against the law as this sign indicates as you head up the summit.

Mauna Kea and Kilauea: This aerial shot of Kilauea with Mauna Kea in the distant background shows what Mauna Kea lacks -- a caldera (crater)!  As active as Kilauea has been, it is still considered a relativel stable volcano that spews out its lava rather predictably.  When Mauna Kea erupts again, it will be explosive.

Hawaii Glaciers: Glaciers once covered Mauna Kea.

Hawaii Graffitti: Hawaiians have their own version of graffitii. They place white coral shells on the lava flows.  It's against the law.
 

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

Trip Reports

It sure didn't feel like I had climbed any highpoint on the planet.

With a billion dollars worth star gazing telescopes and a host of red cinder cones ("puu's"), it looks more like Mars.

Indeed Mauna Kea has more world-class claims than any other state highpoint -- including Alaska's McKinley:

• It is the highest in the Pacific (more than 1,000 feet higher than Mount Fuji).
• It is the world's highest mountain from base to summit (it rises more than 33,000 feet from the ocean floor -- Everest's height is 29,000 feet).
• It -- along with the rest of Hawaiian islands -- are the most remote places on earth -- nearly 2,500 miles from the closest continent.
• The telescopes on its summit are among the most sophisticated in the world.  The space exploration phase were underscored by the fact that a Challenger astronaut was from here and astronauts trained here in preparation for the lunar landing.
• The mountain which on one side climbs up a desert and other a jungle it encompasses most of the planet's ecosystems -- from plains to arctic tundra.

Even though it's a dormant volcano that last erupted 4,000 years ago and which is likely to erupt again, there is no great inverted "V" shape along the lines of other coastal volcanoes such as Rainier and Mount Fuji.

Mauna Kea -- like neighboring Mauna Loa -- developed in a sort cow pie pattern.  Lava just poured out layer upon layer for millions of years.  This is known as a "shield volcano."  It doesn't explode it just spews in relatively controlled manner (in contrast to Fuji and Rainier and Mt. St. Helens -- known as "composite" volcanoes -- which explode when they erupt.

Mauna Kea actually is entering a "post shield" phase in which it will become more explosive.  This is evidenced by the numerous cinder cones that mark its summit (which lacks an easily identifiable crater).  With eruptions now thousands of years apart -- just a blink in geological time -- astronomers don't mind spending billions of dollars to put telescopes on the summit of the mountain with one of the clearest nighttime skies on the planet.  With sensitivities on these telescrope set in microns, there will be plenty of warning when Mauna Kea starts rumbling again.

Mauna Kea has an incredibly unique weather pattern.  On one flank is Hilo which is the "rainiest city in the United States."  Yet, there's virtually no electrical storms on this mountain (the Big Island is not big enough to generate the power for such storms).

Clouds will build up on the mountain and even cover the observatories in the middle of the day (as they did when we visited).  It can rain and snow (the name "Mauna Kea" means "White Mountain")  But as the Island cools at night, the clouds clear.

Mauna Kea's snow is all the more dramatic as it contrasts the Big Island's basic stone color of black lava.

Postcards show snowmen and pineapples on the summit.  All art shops have paintings of a snow covered mountain.  The visitor center sells "Ski Hawaii" sweatshirts.  There can even be skiing and snowboarding exhibitions.

However, for the most part the snow is not extreme enough to close the summit extensively during season (December to March).  The University of Hawaii (which holds the lease on the summit) is very cautious and it will close the summit road even if a snowstorm is dropping only an inch of snow (this practice is similar to other drive up peaks such as Pikes Peak or Mount Washington).  However once the storm passes the summit road is quicky re-opened.

You need to call ahead to check conditions.  There are many tales of week-long storms and instances where the summit could be accessed with a Snow Cat.  And there are some pretty dramatic photos of its snows.

When we visited, Hawaii was experiencing one of the worst droughts in history.  The biggest storm of the season was a 5 inch version.  There were several other smaller storms.  It was cold and windy enough on the summit that we wore our winter coats.  Pillow sized clumps snow were in the cracks.

Snow is not the only weather hazard.  Signs at the visitor center warn you to avoid hitting the "invisible cows."  These are feral black cows that roam the mountain.  When the fog rolls in and your lights are on mandatory "low" these cows can be hard to see.

Cattle are part and parcel of Mauna Kea lore.  The mountain including the summit was originally part of the legendary Parker Ranch -- the largest privately owned ranch in the U.S. (the King Ranch, et al, are owned by corporations).  John Parker, the founder of the ranch first caught the eye of Kamehameha (the Hawaiian king from the Big Island who consolidated the islands under one rule) by offering to bring the cattle under control.  He was fairly successful at age 19 and further enhanced his favoritism with the King by marrying his granddaughter.

Seemingly everything on the Big Island has some connection to the King and his name is everywhere.  There are mythic stones he's said to have lifted, hiding places for his bones and sacred petroglyphs attributed to him.

Most people visiting Mauna Kea land at the Kona airport.  Although Hilo is nearly twice the size of Kona, Kona is the up and coming city because it is dry and is thus the fastest growing area in all of Hawaii.

The observatories look quite inviting as they loom above the clouds as you approach.  But as you land, you may have second thoughts about the paradise that awaits you.  The airport carved out of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa lava flows looks like its in the middle of giant tar wasteland.

Getting used to this metaphor takes a lot of getting used to -- and quite frankly most tourists will most likely find the Hawaii of their dreams on Maui or Kauai rather than Big Island.

There have been spectacular attempts to breath life into this wasteland. Hapuna Beach just north of the airport is considered one the most beautiful beaches in the world.  Lavish resorts particularly the *** Hilton which showed off the excesses of the 1980's with its canals and art walks.  Some of the best golfing in the world is to be found.

But the Big Island by law has been dulled down. 

All street lights are the Island are dulled down to shades of yellow to protect the observatories. 

As we walked the streets of Kona -- a kind of half-hearted attempt to mimic the port of call Caribbean tourist villages -- at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night looking for dinner we found most restaurants closed.  The only life seemed to be the folks selling time shares under the deceptive ruse of giving you "Volcano Information."  Locals joke that the town should be called "Kailua Koma."  Meanwhile they scoff that rainy Hilo is even worse as the best that side can muster is a "mildew festival."

However, we got a big time bounding by visiting the Wai'po Valley on the northeast coast.

It is hands down the most beautiful place I ever seen in my life.

Most people will say the few of the verdant green cliffs is "nice."  There's an unremarkable picnic shelter there.  However if you descend the road (a paved road with an 18% grade that is prohibited on the maps provided by most car rental agencies), you descend into a verdant paradise with ponds, taro fields and wild horses.

The big payoff is a black sand beach with perfect  body surfing waves and the payoff of payoffs a waterfall that flows into the ocean.

If you explore a little further you will see the most waterfalls anywhere on the islands (these are the picture postcard views that the helicopter tour companies push).  A trail zig zags up the next cliff and on into the Waimo Valley.  Much of this private property but you can camp by making reservations two weeks in advance.

Sadly, the most beautiful place on earth also has a big downside which has resulted in its undisturbed nature -- it's prone to deadly tsunamis which arrive unannounced and provide no route of escape.

Our round trip drive up Mauna Kea took most of the day.

Most people will visit the Mauna Kea at sunset (in contrast to Maui's Haleakala where folks watch the sunrise).  As the sunsets on Mauna Kea, the already reddish-orange cinder landscape takes on an even strong "Martian tone."  Then the big show are the stars -- unencumbered by light haze like no place else.

Rangers pull out telescopes for visitors   There are stargazing groups that take you to the summit.

We instead drove in the middle of the day.

The highway between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa know as Route 200 or "Saddle Road" is the shortest distance between Kona and Hilo.  However most car rental companies give out maps saying that is considered "off road" and thus voids the car rental contract.

At first this may not seem logical.  It's a paved road and never really steep enough to even make you car sputter as you climb from sea level up to its 6,000 foot level.

However, the road is considered Hawaii's "most dangerous."  The center part of the road is smooth while the edges are rough.  Drivers tend to hug the middle and drive too fast resulting in lots of head on collisions.

There is always talk of bring the road "up to spec."

We saw no road signs pointing it as the way between Hilo and Kona.  There wasn't even a sign pointing to the turn off for Mauna Kea or  the observatories.  It was however the only big paved road going to the north off the highway.

The only signs we saw were ones warning you that artillery could be fired over your head as you pass through the Pokahuloa army base.  We were in fact to the artillery although the visitors center assured us "we haven't lost anybody yet."  A tank road parallels part of the road.

As we turned off on the road to the visitor center, our Jeep 4WD sputtered along at less than 10 mph (as did other cars we encountered).  We attributed this to the carburetor not being set properly for high altitude.  However, when I dropped it into "4WD Low" it did quite nicely.

The visitors center was not quite as fancy as I was expecting.  There were some telescopes, coffee and modest displays in the two room building.  A display about the palila bird on the mountain.

They played a tape about Mauna Kea's "headline" observatory -- the Keck telescopes (which structurally are smaller than some of the telescopes).  It was cool enough that I had to put on long pants.  The foggy clouds drifted up the mountain.

You could buy a topo map (the hiking trail begins on the uphill side of the center and goes up the mountain just on the left of the jeep road).

The rule of thumb is that you should spend at least half an hour at the 9,000 foot center to acclimate.  The official line is that virtually all children will probably get sick on the summit.  I personally have known several people who have gotten altitude sickness on this mountain.  When the Highpointers Convention was held here in 2000, even they had to administer oxygen.

Signs also warn that you are prohibited from climbing the mountain if you have been skindiving in the past 24 hours.

Happily we were not having problems.

We could accompany a ranger to the observatory provided we could drive up on our own. 

We passed the "Ice Age" area (Mauna Kea was once under a glacier -- Mauna Loa was also under a glacier but lava has since covered its glacier).  Turnoffs to Lake Waiau (unsigned) were blocked off and signs warned "no off road driving").  Lake Waiau is said to be the second highest lake in the U.S.  They now have strict rules prohibiting access (according to legend natives were supposed to throw umbilical cords of their children into lake to gain strength).

There was another turnoff which was apparently where the lunar lander did its tests.

The gravel road gave way to an immaculately kept paved road about a quarter of a mile from the summit.

At a fork, we bore to the right (if we had gone left we would have gone down to the Keck Observatories).

We parked at the obvious highest point on the road -- by the University of Hawaii 2.2 meter observatory.  A sign said you could visit it during the week in the middle of the day.  We were visiting it on a Sunday and nobody was there (we were to see only one car the entire time we were in the vicinity of the highpoint).

There were no clear signs indicating that this was the place to hike.  There was only the small sign in the door of the observatory.  There were no signs indicating that this was the parking area.  Rather we just made the assumption based on the gravel lot.

Across from the observatory was a trail leading about a thousand feet to a rock cairn on an adjoining hill.  No signs pointed out it was the summit.  We climbed over a guard rail passing a sign warning you that it was against the law to move or stack rocks. 

We ascended the cinder hill to the summit.  A USGS marker was in a pipe in the ground.  Despite the admonition about moving rocks, the cairn had been supplemented with a bamboo altar on which people had deposited fruit and some folks had even left their rental car contracts.

The view was indeed as if we had been to Mars.  The cinder cones surrounded us.  The wind flapped.  I discovered I was missing one of the cameras.  So we got to go back and repeat the climb.

Weiku is Hawaiian for "highest."  The summit area's main claim to exotic wildlife is the Weiku beetle which hails from a family that normally eats fruit but up here it eats the carcasses of bugs blown up here.

The only other peak that might look higher is a puu Poliahu to the northeast of the summit.  It has a jeep road running up it and by law no observatories can be built on it because it is said to be the home of the goddess Poliahu.  According to legend she was always quarreling with the god of Mauna Kea.  Whenever he started the lava flowing she would cover it with snow.

And this is place where highpointers come to get married.