Mauna Kea – The Adventures of Supermaren

Previously: On Top of the World (Part 1)

Once we piled back into the vans, they drove up an even steeper road, zig-zagging up the mountain. Now the landscape was barren, looking more like a moonscape than earth. In fact, our tour guide said, the Mars rovers were tested on this rocky land, since it was similar to the makeup of the ground on Mars.

We kept driving, and soon we saw snow. Then more snow, then hills with ski-marks on it: our guide told us that people who work here (scientists and tour guides alike) sometimes bring their skis or snowboards, drive to the summit, and ski to the bottom of the snow.

The snow looked pretty icy, though…I can’t imagine that the skiing was actually very good.

We also learned that there is archeological evidence that ancient Hawaiians used to live up this far up, even though there is no underground water source. Apparently this is where priests and royalty went to commune with the gods, and there was a small community of people, completely dependent on food and water from the outside world, who lived their lives on the summit as gatekeepers to the gods.

We knew we were getting closer to the summit when we started to see the observatories, more modern gatekeepers of the heavens. We stopped at the Caltech submillimeter observatory and walked around it, and I got an idea of how incredibly enormous it was.

There was snow on the ground, and I was bundled in my parka, but Ray still hadn’t given into the cold. He was wearing a light jacket and still sported his flip-flops even though I had brought some socks and an extra pair of shoes for him.

The van then took us to the summit just in time for a glorious sunset. Two crazy people (not on our tour) took off their clothes and jumped around in the snow in their bathing suits. Ray just took off his flip-flops.

It’s difficult for me to come up with words to describe how I felt standing on the top of the world at an altitude of 13,796 feet, looking at the sun setting into the horizon. I felt an incredible sense of euphoria of being in such a magical place, and I could understand why the Hawaiians felt like they were communing with the gods up here. And maybe it was the lack of oxygen making me think this way, but maybe, just maybe, there really was something mystical about the summit.

After the sun set, we all crowded back into the van to drive back to the visitors’ center. Across the road, they set up two 9-millimeter telescopes and gave us a stargazing presentation as we sipped hot chocolate. We all got to look into the telescopes and see several different star formations, ending with a finale of a fantastic view of Saturn and its rings. Some of the people had gotten tired and cold about halfway through the presentation and had gone back to the van, but I was riveted.

The ride back was very quiet, and I’m sure many people fell asleep. Our tour guide dropped us off at the junction where he picked us up, and we got back into our rental car.

As soon as the van pulled away, Ray turned to me and said, “Okay, that was the best thing we’ve done this whole trip.” I heartily agreed.

Next: Seahorses

Previously: Tourist Trap

One of the things Ray wanted to do on our trip was go to the top of one of the mountains on the Big Island. We had heard rumors that there was snow in Hawaii, and we wanted to be able to see it for ourselves to believe it. So we booked a tour on Mauna Kea Summit Adventures, which not only seemed to be a pretty comprehensive tour (complete with dinner, a parka for the cold, and stargazing), but also did a pretty good job of advertising in every single tourist magazine we had.

We headed into Waimea/Kamuela for lunch at the Paniolo Country Inn and had a much better experience than our last sojourn into Waimea for food. Although this place was still akin to diner fare, there was no wait, and we were treated much better by the waitstaff. We ate our lunch without much fanfare and tried to find the spot where the tour van was going to pick us up.

When I had made our reservations for the tour a few days before, the woman on the phone asked me what resort we were staying in. Since we weren’t at any of the resorts, she told us the van would pick us up at the junction of Highway 190 and 200, which has no distinguishing landmarks other than the junction itself and a dirt turnoff by the side of the road.

We had given ourselves plenty of time in case John Cleese didn’t know where we were going, but we found the place pretty easily (it’s not like there’s anything else for miles!), so we pulled over and hung out until the van came to pick us up. I did get a chance to take a few pictures of the countryside while we were waiting.

At last, our van arrived, and it was already pretty crowded, this being the last pickup point before entering the dreaded Saddle Road (many car rental companies actually prohibit driving on the road because it’s so narrow and windy and locals drive very fast, especially at night). Apparently Saddle Road used to have spots that weren’t paved, but that has changed, and in fact, the state is working on widening and fixing the road so that it’s a safer, faster, more viable direct route from Kailua-Kona to Hilo.

Ray took the shotgun seat, since he has trouble with motion sickness when he’s not driving, and I made my way all the way to the back corner, where I sat next to a really cool gal from Colorado. As he drove up the mountain, our tour guide made comments on the countryside and the history of the area.

The road wound through ranches, sheep farms, a military camp, and finally arrived at the Mauna Kea Summit Road, where the grade got much steeper. We were going so high we were looking down on the clouds.

We arrived at the Mauna Kea Visitors’ Center (altitude: 9,000 ft.) just in time for dinner. We all piled of the van, and our tour guide distributed warm parkas and hot dinners (okay, mine wasn’t hot, but only because I got the vegetarian option, which was a cold veggie wrap with tofu). We were encouraged to wander around (i.e., use the bathroom!) for a little bit, but we needed to be back in the van in 30 minutes so that we could make it to the summit in time for the sunset.

After seeing this sign, though, I came to the conclusion that the real reason our tour guides wanted us to be back in the vans before too long is that they didn’t want us to be attacked by ninja cows.

Next: On Top of the World (Part 2)