Conquering Mauna Kea Volcano Summit...

I've been to Mauna Kea Volcano before (see this post), but last time I only made it to 9,000 feet.  On my return trip to Hawaii Island, I was determined to adventure to the top.  I wanted to hike the summit, see the observatories, and watch the sunset above the clouds.  I was on a mission:  I planed to hitch hike my way up the road after 9,000 feet (don't worry Dad, I would have been fine), but the rental car company upgraded me to a 4-wheel drive (sometimes it does pay to be a 'local' in tourist-country).  I think all the rental companies have rules about not taking the cars off roads, but rules are more 'guidelines' when shenanigans are to be had, right?  In this case I was definitely adopting the theory of begging forgiveness instead of asking permission.  So on up the mountain I went!

Mauna Kea is almost 14,000 feet above sea level, but if measured from it's true base on the Pacific Ocean floor it would be 33,500 ft tall, making it the tallest mountain on Earth (Mount Everest is 29,000 ft and K2 is 28,000).

I stopped at 9,000 for 30 minutes to adjust better to the altitude.  While there I visited the Mauna Kea Silversword sanctuary.  The M.K. Silversword is an endangered and endemic plant species.  It lives approximately 40 years.  It spontaneously dies after it flowers.  All it will ever produce will be one flower during it's final hurrah, and then it whole life comes to an end.  A silversword is rare enough, but a flowering silversword is even more rare.  When Silverswords do flower, professional photographers tend to flock to the site for the rare opportunity to capture it during it's brief moment of fame.  

Then I headed to the top.  It was quite a long and bumpy ride but I was awarded with a constant view of the observatories above cloud level.

One of the rangers told me about a great hike that was only 1.5 miles to a lake, near the summit.  That sounded like an easy hike, until I realized how hiking at elevation would effect me.  Let's just say I took a lot of breaks during that 1.5 mile hike.  But it was worth it, the lake was beautiful with the strangest surroundings.

I love the reflection off the water.  I see some cloud, blue sky and then for some reason the volcanic rock reflects green.

More observatories near the summit of Mauna Kea

Once I got back to my car (from the longest 1.5 mile hike in my life!), I headed for the summit.  If I was going to be this close to the tallest mountain in the world then conquering the summit is a must, right?!

There's the summit shining it all it's glory:

Mauna Kea Summit

Hawaii Topher on Mauna Kea's summit.  ...whew the air is thin up here!  ...and its cold too.

I flew into Hilo Airport earlier that morning.  Driving up the volcano and trekking two small hikes took the entire day.  It was time to watch the sunset, and it really was one of the best sunsets I've ever seen.  The color in the sky when you are up that high, above the clouds, was amazing.

I dropped the saturation in this picture.  Taking it all the way to B/W took too much out of the picture so I left soft tones in.

Almost ducking under the clouds.

The clouds are held at a certain level by the volcanos massive height, but here I caught some clouds (lower left of picture below) crawling around the volcano's side on their way to meet the other lower cloud line.  The clouds in the lower left are actually sandwiched between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.  Mauna Loa is the other volcano next to Mauna Kea and just a glimpse can be seen in the picture below on the far side of the clouds on the lower left.

Once I was finished I drove back down to 9,000 ft for dinner.  I had to get ready to head to my trip's first campsite on the adjacent volcano: Mauna Loa.  I planned to camp Mauna Loa's lone observatory at 11,000 feet in order to further adjust to altitude and prepare for a grueling hike up Mauna Loa which is only accessible by foot.  Mauna Loa, is just shy of Mauna Kea's height (almost 14,000 feet).  As I was driving down Mauna Kea, I spotted a red dot on the volcano far away which is a red light fixed to the top of Mauna Loa's observatory.  To the red dot I go!  I'll let you know how my time on Mauna Loa went in my next blog.

Mahalo for visiting.  A hui hou!