Like most 'mainlanders', my knowledge of Hawaii has come about largely through television shows ('Lost' being a current favorite) and magazine photography. There's no doubt it's a beautiful, unique set of islands, but there's also a quasi-foreignness to the place. Yes, it's part of the United States, but it's also an isolated volcanic archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean - not a place I can pile into the truck and drive to on a whim. It is a place with a unique heritage, a stew of Pacific Islanders, Asian and 'Haole' (Caucasians who have adopted Hawaii as their home). It was a kingdom, an independent nation for a few years, a United States territory for about a half-century, and, of course, site of the famous Pearl Harbor attack of 1941, which vaulted us into World War II. To get to Hawaii requires a bit of planning and money for the plane, although not as expensive as you might think. Nevertheless, I couldn't justify spending all that money just to visit the highpoint, Mauna Kea. I figured I'd someday get around to making a visit to the highpoint, hopefully incorporating it in with a longer trip to the islands overall. I have actually been to Hawaii previously: two days in July 1985, on a stop-over while flying back to Los Angeles from Sydney, Australia. At that time I stayed in a hotel in Waikiki and didn't venture far from there, just to the beach and back. I don't recall much about that visit except the hotel's air conditioning conking out all the time, and giving $5 to a Hari Krishna so he'd leave me alone.

Our opportunity for 2006 came about when my mother planned a 10-day trip to the Poipu Resorts on Kaua'i Island, as part of a grand 'retirement' gesture. Through her largesse, she underwrote most of costs for her three children to attend. Being one of my mom's three kids, I got to go! Of course, we could bring along spouses and kids, so my wife Beth came along, too. She had lived in Hawaii back about 1979-1981 when her dad was stationed at Schofield Barracks on O'ahu. She had done a lot of traveling in and around Hawaii at that time when she was a young teenager, and also numerous times again as an adult as part of her business dealings. However, she had not been back to Hawaii since about 2000, and was very eager to return. The plan was to spend three days on Kaua'i at Poipu with my mom and the siblings and kids, then four days on the Big Island, in which a trip to the state highpoint was a must, as well as a day visit to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

As our vacation neared, our excitement grew. It's one thing to look at pictures of beatiful waterfalls, high mountains, unique beaches, other-worldly lava plains, dense green forests and heart-stopping cliffs in magazines, knowing full well all this is 2,700 miles away across half an ocean, and another thing to know that in a few days, we'd be there among all that! I taught during the June summer session at ASU and at a local community college, literally up to the day we left. Naturally, it was a hectic week before leaving - arranging the cat-lady to come by and look after our furry beasts, getting money and tickets in order, getting packed, all that. I was also giving exams that last week for my students, and Beth had had an out-patient minor surgical procedure that week on her neck that essentially kept her sedentary for two days while she recuperated. I had left open the final Friday so that I could take care of things I needed to take care of, as we were leaving very early the following Saturday Morning. At 5 p.m. that afternoon, the house's air conditioning crashed. Now there was something that could completely stall us in our tracks. We were leaving the cats at home, looked after by our trusty cat-lady, but with outside temps 108 degrees or higher, we couldn't leave them home in a hot house! So I got on the horn and called about 6 places before finding a place that offers 24-hour service. They sent a guy out, who remedied and fixed the problem fairly quickly (thank heavens the problem was a simple one). It was about 8 p.m. when he finished. The relief was monumental - we could go forth with our plans. Unfortunately, my wallet was about $750 lighter as a result. The stress, however, didn't let up immediately. We decided to forget about packing that evening, get an early start, and pack the next morning, which is what we did. Then, while boarding our plane in Phoenix, the guy in front of us cuts himself while reaching for the seatbelt that had fallen between the seats. He and his wife both call for assistance, needing help for his 'bleeding gash'. So the stewardess called for paramedics, which delayed us a full hour. It wasn't bleeding at all. In fact, the stewardess had given him a bandaid which performed nicely. We think they were trying to score some freebies from the airline as a result. Bastards. After all that, fortunately, the flights to Honolulu, then onto Lihue, went well. By the time we arrived at our room in Poipu, we were exhausted and still pretty stressed. C'mon vacation, start relieving our stress, will ya?

We spent three days on Kaua'i, enjoying the slow pace, the green scenery and the magnificent cliffs and mountains. On our first day we made a day-hike of Nounou Mountain, then a visit up Waimea Canyon and lastly, an incredible hike along the cliffs of the Na Pali Coast. Then, we flew out and on to Kona, landing on the fifth. The two islands could not be more different: Kaua'i is a lush, green island with weathered mountain peaks and knife-edge ridges, while the Big Island is basically a patchwork of lava flows, past and current. When landing at Kailua-Kona our first views were of the bleak, black lava lining the coast. Once out of the plane we than gazed up at the slopes of Hualalai, an 8,200-foot dormant volcano that rises immediately above Kailua-Kona. Clouds enveloped its summit. The massive hulks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa could not be seen from our position. Even so, the sheer size of Hualalai was quite impressive. The Big Island is basically four mountains, and one on the way. Two peaks, of course, are the well-known "Maunas" (Hawaiian for mountain), Kea and Loa. Hualalai and Kohala are older and smaller in size, and dormant but not extinct (Kohala might be). Kilauea isn't really a mountain (yet) but it is the site of an active lava eruption and flow, continuous since 1983. It surely will be a giant peak at some time in the distant future. The scale of these peaks are immense and it plays with your senses as well. In Kailua-Kona, the eastern skyline is dominated by Hualalai, and there are no foothills at all. The peak essentially rises directly out of the ocean, its slopes steady and consistent, topping out 8,200 feet higher. Without foothills to give one a sense of scale, it looks like the whole island is tilted - in a sense, it is. Under normal circumstances, 8,200 feet of uninterrupted slopes would be quite impressive - and it is - but Hualalai is merely a bump when compared to the utter giganticness of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.

We had set up July 6th as our Mauna Kea day. We had read all the warnings about taking rental cars up Saddle Road and from there to the summit. We looked at renting a 4-wheel drive vehicle just for the day. We also looked at one of the many tour companies that offer trips up to the summit. Ultimately, we chose to go with Mauna Kea Tours, figuring that a lot of the logistical hassles could be absolved by going with a group that knew what it was doing. We were perfectly happy to ride along and play tourist. For the price, they also include a reasonably tasty dinner, parkas (so we don't have to pack our stuff with us), a sunset from the summit, and some star-gazing afterwards. Be forewarned: we had to ask specifically about being allowed to hike to the true summit (Pu'u Wekiu), which they said was fine as long as we told them in advance. Other tour comapnies I checked into said they don't allow it as it's a 'sacred heiau', which is false. Anyway, we met at 3:30 p.m. in front of a deli in one of Kailua-Kona's shopping centers, and off we went. There were 11 of us total, in a large tour-type bus. The driver was real cool and very informative, giving us lots of history as we drove up the slopes.

About 35 miles north of Kailua-Kona was the turn-off onto Saddle Road, Hawaii State Highway 200. As stated, most rental car companies forbid cars along Saddle Road, and especially up to Mauna Kea's summit. That part, I can understand. Forbidding travel on Saddle Road seems a bit anal to me. I figured it was some horribly steep, narrow road with washouts and berms and that accidents were common and towing nearly impossible. None of that is true. Actually, the gradients are very gentle and steady - it takes about 35 miles to get to the 6,600-foot saddle that lies between Kea and Loa. The real problem is that there are no services along this road for its duration between Hilo on the east and Waimea on the west, and that much of the road is along private ranch property as well as fronting a military facility for about 20 miles. It boils down to the cost of a tow should one need to be made. Our guide also explained that the road was originally just a jeep track up to about 1960, when it was paved into a single lane route to facilitate travel between the east and west halves of the island, and the new observatory complexes being built atop Mauna Kea. Sometime in the 1980s it was 'adopted' by the state and widened, but not to normal highway specs. Basically it's concrete and asphalt on top of dirt. No underbed of gravel. As a result the fringes chip and erode easily, so that most people drive down the center line and only go to the side when meeting a vehicle coming the other way. It's a very bumpy road. I enjoyed the ride, looking up at Mauna Kea and being able to see the observatories in the cloud breaks. Again, the scale plays tricks on the eye: it didn't 'look' like 7,000 more feet up to the top from where we were, but sure enough, it was. The land just slopes up and gently 'merges' with the upper mountain. A real neat effect.

We finally came upon the access road to the Onizuka Vistor's Center. This road was paved and in excellent shape. From Saddle Road it was six miles to the visitor's center, set at 9,000 feet. The road is steep, however. But even so, most vehicles should be able to make it to the center, where one can start a long hike to the top. After the center, the road becomes dirt, and requires 4-wheel drive. We stopped at the center for an hour to acclimatize to the elevation, to eat, shop for souvenirs and use the potty. At 6:15 p.m. we piled back into the vehicle and started the slow, bumpy drive to the observatories. We were one of about a dozen such groups, all pretty much following the same schedule. The drive up is steep and washboarded, but not bad. We stopped once for some photography shots. Here, I took a series of photos of Mauna Loa across the saddle. It's the panorama shot on the left sidebar. Click on it and then again to enlarge it. Hopefully this gives one a sense of the sheer enormity of scale of Mauna Loa. Words can't describe it, and photos barely hint at its massiveness. More on that later! Anyway, back in the bus, we finally made it to the very top, with one more stop to get a short lecture on the various observatories on the summit, who owns what, what does what, that sort of thing. Finally, we drove to the very end of the road (from the Onizuka Center it's 9+ miles to the summit, the last four being paved again). Our driver let Beth and I out to make our quick hike to the 'real' summit. Actually, the road get as high as 13,760 feet, just 30+ feet shorter than the very top. Stickler that we are for counting the highpoint, we wanted the chance to walk the 2/10s of a mile to the top. There were a few others doing the same thing, we noticed. We had maybe 30 minutes of usable sunlight left. The hike was short: we descended a trail etched into the soft cinder about 100 vertical feet to a low point, then up about 130 feet to the top. We had enough light for some photos, including one neat shot of the mountain's shadow on the far east atmosphere (see left sidebar). We didn't dally- we descended back down, then up to the road and on to the bus. Even that short hike left us winded and lightheaded. The last of the sunset was ending, and now it was time for the drive back down. State highpoint #44, done and in the books! For Beth, this was her 4th, and for me, my first new state highpoint in almost three years.

Now for some facts about Mauna Kea (and Loa): Mauna Kea is generally regarded as the tallest mountain in the world, with nearly 32,000 feet between it summit and its base, rising uninterrupted from the ocean floor. Peaks such as Everest, Aconcagua and other famous monsters generally rise from elevated plateaus and highlands. Everest is basically a 14,000-foot tall mountain sitting on a 15,000-foot high plateau. Mauna Kea is dormant and probably extinct; all hints of its caldera have eroded and filled in with rubbly cinder rock. The top is a broad quasi-plateau dotted by numerous hills of cinder. The highest is Pu'u Wekiu (Pu'u being the Hawaiian word for hill). On the other hand, Mauna Loa is often regarded as the largest mountain in the world, based on its sheer mass. It is not part of a range. It rises, steadily and inexorably, to its summit at 13,677 feet. It is 50 miles across it base, and (said the guide) about equivalent in volume to 10 Mount Rainiers. It is active - it last spewed lava in 1984. Other than a weather and geological monitoring station, there are no observatories atop Loa. Its caldera is very large and very well defined. Some day we plan to come back for the hike, which seems like a real treat. For now, just gazing upon its profile, and my mind struggling to comprehend its size, was fun enough. I have never in my life seen anything so gigantically massive. You have to see it for yourself.

After descending back a bit past the visitor's center we drove off the road to a secluded spot for some star-gazing. It's not as if the observatory people would let us look through their scopes. Even so, we had nifty Celestron $4,000 units that are fancier than anything I've ever played with, and definitely for the hobbyist. We spent about an hour looking at various objects including the Ring Nebula, Jupiter and its Jovian moons, some star clusters, a binary system, and other cool stuff which appealed to my inner nerd. From there, we drove on back down to Kailua-Kona, taking about 2 hours for the drive, and arriving about midnight. A fun day and one I recommend if you might want to go with a tour group. We spent the remainder of our four days on the Big Island by visiting the northern Kohala Coast, and a fascinating and amazing day trip to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, where we took a long hike across lava field to witness actual lava emerging into the ocean!