At 29,029 feet Mount Everest is the highest mountain on Earth as measured by the height of its summit above sea level. Mauna Kea at 13,796 feet is the tallest mountain in the world when measured from base to summit since its base is located on the seafloor approximately 20,000 feet beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
Mauna Kea is in the middle of the island of Hawaii, the big island. The summit is accessible by car except there is a stipulation from rental car companies that their cars cannot be taken on the saddle road which is a one lane highway designed 60 years ago during World War 2 to helped connect two training facilities for the army. Since the only way to get to the summit is via the saddle road and rental cars are prohibited, I decided to join a summit and stargazing tour. I went with
Hawaii Forest and Trail, which I highly recommend.
My journey started out at their office in Kona and we proceeded to pick up some otherfolks and head down the saddle road.
Our first stop was a tent at the first part of the Mauna Kea road where we had dinner.
After dinner, we began our trip to the summit. There is a Visitor Information Center at 9,000 feet. We stopped here to begin to get acclimated to the altitude. There aren’t many places in the world where you can go from sea level to 14,000 feet in about two hours. After our stop we ascended further up the mountain and started to get above the clouds.
About twenty minutes later we hit our final destination, the summit of Mauna Kea - we had about fifteen minutes up there before witnessing a beautiful sunset.
We were able to stay up there long enough to see a full moon.
We went back down to the Visitor Information Center to do some stargazing. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pics of the stars but it was cool to see constellations and even Jupiter with a telescope. At 13,796 feet, the sky is so clear and you can see a lot of things.
I may never make it to the top of Everest but this trip to Mauna Kea – was unbelievable.
Labels: Hawaii
