The White Mountain
Kalapana,
Hawaii,
United States
Saturday, June 13, 2009
It rained on and off all night. At times quite hard, though, only for maybe a minute at a time. This is the rainy side of the island.
We got going around 9:00am. Our destination was the summit of Mauna Kea. "Mauna Kea" means "white mountain" and stands 13,796 feet above sea level. Measured from its base on the sea floor, it is around 29,000 feet tall. That makes it the tallest mountain in the world. It is even taller than Mount Everest since Everest's base starts high on a plateau.
In order to even get to Mauna Kea, you have to take what is called the Saddle Road (Hwy 200). It runs along the valley between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. The Hilo side of the Saddle road is very winding and hilly. The curves are not banked and the speed limit is 35 MPH. I couldn't help but think of Andy while driving this stretch. He would love it. Eventually we came to an obviously newer portion of the highway that was straighter. Here the speed limit was 55 MPH.
While I'm on the subject of speed limits and driving, I'll touch on getting around the Big Island. Driving here is not like driving at home or anywhere else I've been in the United States. First, the island is indeed big. It is the largest island in the US. It can take upwards of 2-3 hours to get from one of the two population centers to the other (Kailua-Kona and Hilo). If you drive the southern route, it can take 4 or more hours. Second, the landscape is varying, but almost always mountainous. There are 5 mountains (Kohala, Hualalai, Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, and Kilauea) that form the mountain. To get anywhere you are always going up or down one of these mountains. Third, there are very few (good) roads on the island and the main roads are mostly those that circumnavigate the island. So, just about all the towns are off of these roads. If you need to get from say Kea'au to Captain Cook there is only one road. All of this means that traffic can be an issue, surprisingly. Especially around the more touristy areas or population centers. High traffic areas that we have seen so far include Hwy 19 between the Waikoloa Beach area and Kailua-Kona (especially from KOA on down south), between Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Hilo, the area around Kailua-Kona, and the area around Hilo. Generally, the traffic flows, though. Tourists usually go the speed limit or up to 5-10 MPH above. The locals generally go from 5 MPH below up to the speed limit. This proves that when you're on an island there's not many places to get to.
Back to the naritive. The 35 MPH part of the road was through forest. When the road straightened out, the landscape was open lava fields and scrub plains owning to the higher altitude. Mauna Loa could easily be seen in to the south, while Mauna Kea was prominent to the north. We finally made it to the access road. It is not well marked and we almost missed it. We began to climb though gently sloping grass land used for cattle. There were pu'u (cinder cones) punctuating the landscape. After ascending a few thousand feet we arrived at the visitor center. There were numerous and ominous signs saying that we must stop and get information on the drive to the summit. Actually it is a good idea to stop period. The visitor center is at about 9200 feet above sea level. Altitude sickness really starts to affect people at 10,000 feet. So, it is a good idea to stop and acclimate to the altitude.
The visitor center is pretty nice. There are good restrooms and a drinking fountain (important since the place we are staying at does not have potable water). There are informational videos and other information. They even sell engine oil, transmission fluid, and brake fluid in the bookstore/gift shop. During the evening they even put out telescopes for the public. We hung out there for about an hour. We had lunch in the picnic area, stocked up on water, and bought some freeze dried ice cream.
We asked if any observatories were open to the public. Turns out that on the weekends none are unless you are with the guided tour that leaves from the visitor center in the afternoon. We didn't want to wait for them, but we got the OK to meet up with them at the Keck I observatory around 2:30pm. While we were getting ready to leave the visitor center, an English gentleman approached us and asked if we would give him a ride up to the summit. It seems that he had a regular car and "they" wouldn't let him go up unless he had a 4WD vehicle. That is false. You can go up in a 2WD vehicle. No one will stop you. However, "they" high recommend that you take a 4WD vehicle. The slopes are in excess of 17% grade and the road is unpaved for part of the way. We politely declined him, not wanting to be liable for some random guy.
Actually, the road wasn't that bad. Sure it is steep and there are hairpin turns and drop offs. What mountain road isn't? The road is plenty wide for 2 vehicles to pass, which was my concern. The unpaved portion of the road was a washboard and pretty rough, but that was the worst of it. Apparently, in the winter the road can get icy (I believe it), but since this was the summer that wasn't an issue. We put the Jeep in 4WD-Lo (as per what the staff at the visitor center recommended) and crept up at around 15 MPH.
We bought a guide book in the visitor center, which told us about what was on the road up to the summit. We stopped where it said there was access to a lake on the mountain. The lake, called Lake Wai'au, is at 13,020 feet. It is fed by melting permafrost left from the last ice age. A tropical lake fed by permafrost - neat! The short hike (about 20 minutes each way) took us through a moonscape. There is no vegetation up there, only loose rock left from eruptions. At 13,000 feet, though, the hike was a bit rougher than expected. The elevation really makes it difficult. On the way into the lake we stopped half a dozen times to catch our breaths. After cresting one final ridge we saw the lake. It isn't very big; most might call it a pond. The ancient Hawaiians believed it would bring good luck to place a baby's umbilical cord as an offering by the lake. I'm not sure if the practice is still followed, but there were offerings on the shore. We took some pictures and enjoyed the view for a while before heading back. The way back was much easier since it was mostly downhill.
Back at the Jeep, we made the finaly ascent to the summit area. It was really cool to see all the observatories spinkled about the summit area. There are 12 telescopes up there, including the famous Keck I & II. We drove around a bit and got some nice pictures of the telescopes with clouds below them. You could even see Haleakala on Maui. The telescopes are on a circular ridge and in the valley below we saw some genuine Hawaiian snow. In the winter they get several feet of snow. We saw the snow removing equipment down at the visitor center. It is crazy to think that warm, tropical Hawaii needs snowplows, but they do!
We met up with the tour group at the Keck I observatory. We got to go in and see the telescope. I guess most of the time they actually move the telescope, but they didn't this time for whatever reason. Oh well, I guess we'll have to come back. Inside the room where the telescope was, it was cold. It was the temperature of the outside air during the night time. The reason is to keep air turbulence to a minimum. You could see the large liquid nitrogen tanks that were keeping the room cold.
Back outside, the tour guide told us a bit about the other telescopes. About that time the wind kicked up and we decided that we had had enough. So, we began the trek back down the mountain. Going down is the most dangerous because of the danger of brakes overheating. The Jeep did extremely well. In first gear even on the steeps it would only get to around 25 MPH. I didn't have to use the brake much at all. Mauna Kea was a very cool trip and worth the effort to get to.
On the way back to the house, we stopped in Hilo for supplies. The people we were staying with recommended the KTA supermarket on Hwy 11 and Puainako St. Traffic was picking up and the market was really busy. I'm beginning to think that things like that are always busy on the island. There are just a limited amount of places where you can buy things like milk and cereal.
Once we got back to the house, we attempted to fire up the grill. The grill was charcoal and the charcoal was provided, as was lighter fluid. We could not, however, find any way to light the grill. There were no matches or lighters to be found. Next door is the Kalani Oceanside Retreat. They have a little shop, so we walked over in hopes of finding matches or a lighter. The shop smelled of patchouli, but at least they sold lighters. The burgers sure did taste good after going to the top of Mauna Kea!
