Top of the World-Day 6

WARNING-this is a long posting.
Our journey to the top of the world begins with a stop to look at a lava tube.  What is a lava tube?  Basically, it is how magma moves underground. Tubes occur anywhere there is a weakness in rock that allows the 2000*F magma to squeeze through. Some can have ceilings that are 30 to 50 feet tall. Magma that normally flows through a tube fills it about 2/3 of the way up. You can visit and walk partway through a lava tube at the Volcano National Park which we did the last time we were here.  The following lava tube happens to be on the side of the freeway but is very unstable so it isn't safe to walk through; though, there are signs that some have. This lava tube goes under the freeway to the other side but it has collasped and left a crater.

Back on the road, we head east onto Saddle Road, which takes you up to about 6500 ft.  The road is narrow and dips (part of it was like a roller coaster where you couldn't see the other side until you were at the top) and twists and turns at rapid rates. To add to the excitement, fog and mist settles in pretty quickly and unexpectedly. Saddle Road lies in a valley between the 2 largest volcanoes on the island - Mauna Loa (still active) and Mauna Kea (dormant and the largest by a hundred feet). Mauna Kea is where we are headed for.

Mauna Kea is 13,796 ft above sea level; however, much of the mountain is below sea level and stands more than 33,500 ft which is significantly taller than Mt Everest!  During the winter, they do get snow up here and according to one guidebook, people will use anything to go down the snow...even kayaks with paddles.

Mauna Kea, because of its high altitude, dry environment, and stable airflow is one of the best sites in the world for astronimical observation. 13 telescopes funded by 11 countries have been constructed at the summit. And, because of its uncanny resemblance to the moon, the Apollo astronauts trained up here quite a lot in preparation for their flight to the moon.

All the guidebooks highly suggest you stop at the Mauna Kea visitor center which is at 9300 ft to acclimate yourself to the altitude change.  The scientists there have set up different telescopes for people to look at.  Today they had 2 high-powered ones that were looking at sunspots-pretty cool. Last time, the center had a warning sign posted relaying all the horrible things that can happen to you at high altitude-difficulty in breathing, dizziness, heart palpitations, severe headaches, dehydration, etc. I was a lot heavier at that time and was scared to death of moving so I stayed in the car and tried to breathe very slowly. This time, having lost some weight, I was braver and got out and walked around.

The road up is very rough, very bumpy, and narrow.  I really didn't enjoy the ride up and neither did my kidneys.

 These two telescopes are the largest.  Up close they are huge!





I made it to the top of the world!

And now, it was time to go down which was just as bad as going up. We continued east to the Waipi'o Valley (pronounced y-p-e-o) which is at sea level.  One of the prettiest, if not the prettiest, areas on the island. This valley was very important to the early Hawaiians.  Because of it's calming environment, when BIG decisions needed to be made by the chiefs, they would come here. The area was wiped out by a tsunami in 1946 but in the late 60's and 70's people who wanted to be left alone came here and settled.  Residents grow taro plants and try to keep other people from visiting.  The road down is another kidney killer and, most of the time, one lane and a little over car width wide.  You definitely need 4 wheel drive to drive this 1/2 mile descent with 25% average grade.  I read somewhere that if it were classified as a road (does that mean it's really a trail cause that's what it seemed like) then, it would be the steepest road of its length in the US. A lot of people walk it (I say more power to them).

There are lots of rivers streams that need to be crossed as you go further into the valley until you get yelled at that you are trespassing and then you must go back.





First of many to cross.

These are wild horses who are descendants of the ones that were left after the tsunami.

We crossed this and then were told by the tour guide on the other side to turn around.

This is what happens...

to your water bottle...

when you go from almost 14,000 ft to sea level.

At the other end of the valley is this black sand beach.  Apparently, it isn't the safest place to swim because of the undercurrents but it is very pretty in wild sort of way.