Tour to Rainbow Falls and the top of Mauna Kea

Hilo Monday Sept 28

The approach to Hilo looks a lot like the approach to Roatan. This is surprising because Roatan is only a few hundred feet high and Mauna Kea is over 13,400 feet high. Our tour for today is to go to the top of Mauna Kea, the second tallest mountain in the world, measured from the base to the top. The tallest is Mauna Loa, which is connected to Mauna Kea aand is only 26 miles away. Mount Everest is higher, but not taller because Mauna Loa starts in water about 35,000 feet deep and goes up to 13,400 feet for a total height of 52,000 feet.

We are going in a 13 passenger 4-wheel-drive van, a heavy duty diesel rig with “Jake brakes”. The road is steep and brake failure happens on the way back down.

The tour guide is worried about someone getting altitude sickness. He is passing out water to keep us hydrated and checking everybody. There is oxygen in the van, just in case. When we got to 7,000 feet, he stopped at a roadside shrine so we could acclimatize. The shrine was a rock cairn with offerings to the Hawaiian gods stacked on it. After pictures, we continued on to the visitor center at 9,000 feet, where we stopped for an hour. Souvenir items in the gift shop were quite pricey.

Those of you from Colorado will wonder what is the big deal. These elevations are nothing. I thought the guide was being properly overprotective. That is, until we got to the top and even I got light headed. That was a considerable surprise. I have worked at higher elevation than this, so I thought I was immune, but not so. Going from zero to 13,400 feet in a couple of hours will definitely have its effects.

Libby asked the guide – he is a native Hawaiian – whether there were any natural medicines to combat altitude sickness like the coca tea that is used in Peru. He very quietly told her that there are some poppies that are used. He didn't want to talk about it.

Going up from tropical Hilo to the arctic top of the mountain was interesting drive. The plants changed from tropical to alpine species and then went away entirely. At the top there are no plants at all. Mauna Kea has been inactive for about 6,000 years, but it looks like the last eruption could have been yesterday.

What does grow there are astronomical observatories, about 30 of them looking like odd giant mushrooms sprouting along the ridge line.

The only one that takes visitors is the Keck Observatory. There is a little glass room inside where visitors can see the innards on the dome. Really there wasn't much to see, but the “calibration technician” came walking by and told us what was going on. He gave a really interesting 5 minute talk. We were lucky – few get that kind of insiders view.

We went back down to the visitor center for lunch and then headed back to town and the ship.