Mauna Kea was such an otherworldly experience I think it deserves its own dedicated blog post. For those who don’t know, Mauna Kea is an inactive volcano on the Big Island of Hawai’i, and from land to summit it is 13,800ft. above sea level! Unfortunately half of the volcano is in the Pacific Ocean so Mount Everest is still considered the tallest mountain in the world (29,032ft. base to summit), otherwise if we are including the part of the volcano in the ocean to summit, Mauna Kea is technically 33,481ft. tall.
In planning our trip to Hawai’i the number 1 thing on our to-do list was to go up the volcano. There are some things that you need to plan ahead if you are making the trek yourself (otherwise there are plenty of tour companies that can bring you up, and will prep you accordingly):
Having a 4WD vehicle is mandatory, you will be turned away if you do not have one. If renting a car, double check your agreement— most of the road up to the summit is unpaved and on rough terrain so lots of rentals do not allow you to take their cars up. For this reason we rented a truck on Turo and double checked with our renter ahead of time.
Along with this you must have a full tank of gas— you will use lots of gas going up and down, and the nearest station is 50km away.
You must stop at the visitors centre (9,2000ft) for at least 30 minutes to acclimate to the altitude change.
Be weary of altitude sickness; it only gets worse the longer you continue, and can only get better by descending.
You can only stay on the summit for about 30 minutes after sunset before a ranger escorts everyone down. Again, the road is unpaved, rough, and unlit. You can, however, continue stargazing near the visitors centre for as long as you’d like.
Despite it being about 30C around the island, bring a jacket, pants, and layers for the summit! It was about 4C when we were there, and was getting cooler as the sun set.
We took a couple of side quests on this journey, the first being a quick hike up Pu’u Huluhulu quite literally right across the street from Mauna Kea’s access road. Just over 1km loop with 150m elevation gain, this short trip gives you beautiful view of the surrounding area from what felt like high up at the time lol. Another quest was nearly to summit; a 2km out and back ‘walk’ to Lake Waiau. Don’t let the 2km fool you though, this unmarked, unpaved, but very clear and easy to follow, trail is 13,000ft. above sea level and is much, much, harder than it sounds because of how thin the air is.
Much like trying to describe Hawai’i and it’s landscapes in general, I feel as though as most words will not do this justice. It really is a ‘you had to be there’ kind of thing. This was truly a once in a lifetime experience that we are so privileged to have both experienced, in addition to having these beautiful photos to commemorate it.
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