Day 8 Sunday
Driving to the summit of Mauna Kea today. Well, being driven to the top of Mauna Kea by Mauna Kea Summit Adventures in a Mercedes 4×4 luxury van.
I considered driving myself, but I don’t know the guard rail situation, four wheel drive is mandatory and I didn’t read the rental agreement lol. Some rental companies don’t allow you to drive off road and they all have GPS devices on their cars. It’s 13,803 feet in the air which is higher than Haleakala on Maui and randomly I get acrophobia, which is a fear of heights. It really only happens when there is nothing to stop me from falling off of high places. I can go on the tallest roller coaster or stand at the top of a mountain as long as I’m strapped in or there is a fence. It’s probably because I trip and fall so much.
I just hope I don’t get carsick lol.
Good news! Party of One gets the front seat 😁 so I should be good!
There were a bunch of warning signs about altitude sickness and how you need to breathe and acclimate your body to the assent. You shouldn’t scuba dive 24 hours prior to the tour or you could get the bends. There is no decompression chamber on the Big Island. They would have to helicopter you to Maui which would put you even higher in the air. I didn’t really feel anything, but I chewed on some ginger candy (thanks Krystal) just in case.
We stopped at the visitors center for dinner. They served us a hot dinner of veggie lasagna and a brownie. I opted to not eat the lasagna because of the tomatoes and cheese but I kept the brownie to eat with my car food lol.
This pit stop also allowed me to put more clothes on. The warmest clothes I had packed for Hawaii were a pair of hiking pants and yoga pants. I put them on together. Lol. I wore my water/hiking shoes with socks.
We left the visitors center and started the drive up the mountain. The park rangers were checking each vehicle for four wheel drive and whether or not the drivers knew how to use it. The first four miles was like driving up a logging road. It was dirt and gravel and was wash boarded out. The guide said they grated it once or twice a month but you couldn’t tell.
There were guard rails in most places, so I never did freak out and the rest of the drive was on pavement.
We stopped and saw the super telescopes they had up there.
When we got to the top of the mountain, they gave us parkas and gloves to wear. It was approximately 25° up there. I jumped out of the van and took some pictures and then jumped back in the van to warm up. I waited for sunset and got back out. I think I got some good pictures but I should have brought a tri-pod. The cold air was making me shake so some of my photos were out of focus lol.
After sunset, we traveled back down the mountain to about 10,000 feet and our guide set up a giant telescope. I got to see Saturn, craters on the moon, and a twinkling star up close. In the middle of stargazing, a meteor shot across the sky. It was the biggest meteor I have ever seen in my life. It was probably half the size of the moon and it super bright green and red and the tail was very long and colorful. Then it exploded and disappeared behind a mountain. The guide said that he had never seen one that big before. I wish I had gotten a video of it. It was amazing.
foxpartyofone 