Mauna Kea - Hawaii highpoint

[darren]

A couple of my friends are out visiting me and we hopped over to the Big Island for the long weekend. I'm still recovering from my broken leg X2 so we decided to take the easy way to the Hawaii state highpoint. We drove up as close as we could get to the summit and then did the short walk to the actual summit.

From sea level in Kona we drove to Saddle Rd. and then took the Mauna Kea Access Rd to the Visitor Information Station at 9000'. We hung out at 9000' for an hour to "acclimatize" (yah, right) and did a short walk to see some sights:

We were just above the clouds and we could look down at the clouds and some cinder cones below us:

After about an hour we got back in the car and drove up the next 8 miles to the summit. The first 4.5 miles after the visitor center is a dirt road with steep drop offs. 4WD is highly encouraged since snow storms can blow in at any time. The remaining 3.5 miles is asphalt but 4WD is still recommended.

The summit is at 13,796' and the top 6,000' or so of the mountain is straight off of Mars. Cinder cones everywhere and lots of red:

From the road near the observatories, it is a short hike to the actual summit. The trail drops down a few hundred feet and then climbs up to the summit.

We really lucked out and got a total bluebird day and the views were awesome.

The combination of being out of shape and going from sealevel to almost 14,000' in a few hours had me really sucking wind. It was fun though. My first "summit" in a while and it was enough to make me happy.

I have to say that the highlight of the day was having a snowball fight in Hawaii though.

Of course then you drive back down and go to the beach.

Aloha,

- darren

 

[kmorgan]

Very cool!

 

[Bobby]

Nice. Love the hat and the sweatshirt!

 

[hogabum]

awesome hike

Great photos as usual Darren!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks

Balmy 38 degrees here in Lowell MA

Take Care

 

[ColdRiverRun]

Man, it's not everyday you see a guy wearing a Boston Red sox's cap, a New England Patriots sweatshirt, a parka, gloves and shorts standing next to a lava rock cairn with a coconut on top!

 

[Puma concolor]

Kewl. That's one of the 9 HPs I don't have yet. Great pictures.

 

[bigmoose]

That beats Jerimoth Hill, I think.

 

[yogi]

Awesome Darren!
I was there in October last year, staying up in Kawaihae at my aunts house when the earthquake hit, virtually destroying the house and cutting our vacation short a week. Mauna Kea was on my list that week so we never made it. Thanks for posting the pictures. Hope to get back and carve some turns up there.

 

[Fisher Cat]

Always love pics from the Islands, we did Mauna Kea too back in 2005. Nice job Darren. Check out Saddle Rd. at night. All rental contracts do not allow you to take your rental there save one. We took our Jeep there with that company and I don't think you will ever see stars at night like that anywhere in the world. Because of the telescopes a lot of the street lights are a dull orange to cut down on light pollution and have deflector shields to keep light from going up. If you don't feel like driving Saddle Rd you can just go to that landfill off the highway near the entrance to Waikoloa Village, its beautiful and night there too!
Have you done Haleakala?

 

[Abster]

Thanks for views of the Island. What a weird landscape! Interesting to see land regenerate itself. Glad you are healing well Darren

I was on the big island once, but that's a story for another time...

 

[David Metsky]

What with Darren summiting 14Ks and SherpaK doing an 8 mile hike in the Presidentials, it feels like the beginning of the end of the VFTT Gimp Era. Way to go!

 

[timmus]

What with Darren summiting 14Ks and SherpaK doing an 8 mile hike in the Presidentials, it feels like the beginning of the end of the VFTT Gimp Era. Way to go!

Yeah, that's good for me !


Very very nice, Darren, #4 is breath taking !

 

[Peakbagr]

Whats with the shorts when it snowy and cold back here....

 

[bikehikeskifish]

We went to Hawaii on our Honeymoon. Hiked only on Kauai (Waimea Canyon, Cliffs along Na Pali coast.) We did visit the Big Island for a few day, hiked a bit through Volcano National Park. The car rental place doesn't allow you to go up the peaks

I'd go back tomorrow, but it's a long flight... I'd love to ride my bike UP Haleakala. We saw one guy riding up on our van tour.

Tim

 

[giggy]

great stuff darren - looks like fun.

glad to you see the recovery is going well.

 

[darren]

Thanks for the comments everyone.

Bobby + ColdRiverRun - sharp eyes! You got the sweatshirt right, but I took another shot that shows it better:

GO PATS! GO SOX!

Fisher Cat - yes, I have been up Haleakala about 5 or 6 times. A friend of mine used to live on Maui in the 90's so I used to visit there all the time. I love that island. Tough to beat Kauai though - awesome hiking there.

yogi - bummer about your aunt's house. I was here on Oahu during that earthquake. We just had a big shake and I had white caps in my pool. We lost power for about 20 hours and that was about it.

As for the parka, hat, gloves, and shorts, it was cold up there. About 40 degrees and a 20 mph wind, so that's why I had to layer up. I almost always wear shorts though.

I have a ton more shots from the big Island, but I wont have time to post them until after turkey day. I'll post a gallery then.

Aloha,

- darren

 

[MichaelJ]

Woo-hoo!

Sea level to 14K in that short amount of time ... I'm impressed! Sweet pix, too.

 

[forestgnome]

looking good, Darren! Otherworldly beauty. Thanks for sharing and keep on healin'.

I thought I saw in Astronomy Magazine pics of astronomers skiing down the cone after a shift. Isn't that the summit with the honeycomb telescopes (as mentioned by fishercat), the mighty Kecks?

happy trails

 

[coldfeet]

Nice pics, the sweatshirt I can live with, but the hat

 

[darren]

I thought I saw in Astronomy Magazine pics of astronomers skiing down the cone after a shift. Isn't that the summit with the honeycomb telescopes (as mentioned by fishercat), the mighty Kecks?

Yes, people certainly get turns in on that mountain. Sometimes it gets snow storms that last a week. There was some snow there and we saw some locals filling up pickup trucks full of snow. They drive the snow down to Hilo and the kids play with it. Pretty cool.

The mighty Kecks are there too. One of them had a small visitor center open and we got to check it out. The view from the inside:

They said that the surface of the reflector is so perfect that if you expanded the size of the reflector to be the diameter of the earth the imperfections would only be 2' high. That is pretty insane.

Bob and Dan hiking back up to some of the observatories:

For the astro buffs, here are some more observatory photos:

Aloha,

- darren