Mauna Kea - Hawaii Cold!

The only organized tour we went on was a trip up to the top of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano that is the tallest mountain in Hawaii. Manua Kea is 14,000 feet high and the home to 13 different observatories from various countries. Our tour started at the Hawaii Forest & Trail office at about 2:15 pm. We headed off in their van for the 1.5 hour trip to our first stop - a sheep station that was part of the Parker Ranch. You can tell it's a bit neglected.Rosie is leaning against a hitching post where they cowboys tied their horses.We had 5-star accommodations complete with restrooms. We were told they were much warmer than the toilets at the top of the mountain.Our dinner was stew, muffins and hot tea - tasty. Our guide, Greg, handed out the Arctic parkas after dinner. The parkas felt good at this level and even better as we went higher.Mauna Kea is the only area in Hawaii that has snow removal equipment. They get significant snow in the winter.
As we traveled up the volcano, we could see many cinder cones. We particularly liked the red color on some of the cinder cones.It was getting colder and more windy as we headed up the volcano.As I mentioned the top of the volcano is home to 13 observatories. Here are some of the observatories. One is opening up to get ready for night viewing.Off to the side of the observatories is a mountain that is the most holy spot to the native Hawaiians. We were asked to not go there. Note the snow still on the mountain.As the sun starts to set, the temperature gets colder. The temperature was about 32F and the wind was 40-50 mph - so the wind chill was COLD. Take my word for it - that's us all bundled up.The sunset from the top of Mauna Kea was beautiful. Actually the sun set into the clouds instead of the ocean.
The reflection off one of the observatories was outstanding.
From the top of Mauna Kea you can see the top of Haieakala on Maui.After sunset we headed back down to the visitors' station at about 7,000 feet. At the visitors' station Greg broke out the cookies and hot chocolate - wonderful! He then gave us a lesson in constellations and how early sailors navigated by the stars. He also had an excellent telescope that we used to view several planets and the moon. We even saw the rings of Saturn!

After the night sky lesson, we packed up for the drive back to Hawaii Forest & Trail. We arrived back at their office at 10:45 pm. A long day but we had a great tour and can highly recommend the Hawaii Forest & Trail Mauna Kea tour.

We hope you enjoyed our trip around part of The Big Island. We had a great time and saw some really unique sites. Aloha!