And our adventures begin! The day got off to an easy start, relaxing on the beach. The resort had a beautiful shoreline, where we saw the endangered honu green sea turtle float right up to the shore. We enjoyed catching some rays and I had a beautiful Mai Tai. Then it was off to see the sun set atop Mauna Kea.
We set off towards the inland to Saddle Road, a road that traverses east to west the middle of the island. The road is not bad, just a bit curvy. From Saddle Road we turned onto Mauna Kea Access Road, again this road is not bad at all. Remember we are in our Kia Soul...not a 4 wheel drive vehicle. Next, we reach the Visitor's Center, where the elevation is 9,200. Originally when we set off on our journey we decided that we would just take the Kia and chance it (it is HIGHLY recommended that you have 4 wheel drive to make the summit) or just be satisfied with stopping at the VC. Of course once we made it to the VC we knew that we had to make it to the summit! There were 1 of 2 options...Option 1-chance it and take the Kia or Option 2-find someone to hitch a ride with. We opted for the latter, I totally didn't want to have to purchase a broke down Kia. Enter Dave from Cleveland. Dave was in Hawaii solo and he was driving a Jeep Wrangler. He was so kind to let us tag along (the $$ offer probably helped). The 3 of us set off on the final drive of the trip. After we left the VC we turned right and descended up the hill onto a steep and unpaved road for about 5 miles....5 very bumpy miles. (One reason that this road is dirt is that originally the astronomy community wanted to discourage a tremendous amount of pubic attention to the summit as such activity brought dust and (at night) unwanted lights). The remaining four miles are paved with about a 15 percent grade, it was CRAZY high. The road was a 2 lane road with several hair pin turns, no guard rail only a metal rope between the car and death...ok I may be a little overdramatic, but it WAS very scary. Shane was thanking his lucky stars that Dave was driving because he knew I had to keep my mouth shut, no complaining to the nice stranger who kindly let us ride with him.
We made it! Shane and I stood on the tallest mountain in the world (tallest if you measure from the ocean base to the summit 33,000 feet, significantly higher than Everest). The elevation is 13,796 feet and the temperature was about 35 degrees...COLD! I am so glad we packed warm clothes (after going to Haleakala on Maui, we knew to be prepared). It was such an incredible experience. There are 12 telescopes on Mauna Kea, represented by 11 different countries. The altitude and isolation make Mauna Kea of the best locations in the world for astronomy. We spent about 45 minutes at the summit, the park rangers start asking everyone to head back to the VC after 7:30. I am so thankful for this AMAZING experience!!
After our journey to Mauna Kea we ate dinner at Sansei, it was delicious. We had a mango crab salad roll, spider roll, California roll & panko crusted ahi sashimi deeeelish!
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