Wednesday 3rd February - Mauna Kea and the summit

A lazy start again today with breakfast on deck with Gigi the cat. It feels like it will be a hot day.
Off to Mauna Kea today so need jeans, fleeces, trainers etc.

The temperature was in the high 60s when we left. The road going up to the mountains is beautiful. We passed a hill known as the Jello Mold due to its shape. There seem to be a lot of them of similar shapes.

The Saddle Road runs between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa and is over 6000 feet itself. It feels very familiar - like driving through the mediterranean alps. Lovely views along the way. We spotted some telescopes from quite low down. The road is very up and down and sometimes made my stomach go funny - like when you over a hill and it drops suddenly in front of you. The road is very bumpy and not well maintained from the Kona side then suddenly it is a massive highway as there is a military base. Signs around warn of tanks and low flying aircraft.
The crest of the road is 6,578 feet just before the turning to the Mauna Kea visitors centre. The road up became much steeper and by the time we got to the visitors centre it was 50 degrees and felt very cold and there was a strong breeze. We realised why we needed the extra clothing. After 30 minutes or so to acclimatise and put on sunscreen, sunglasses etc Chris drove us up to the summit.

I don't really know how to describe it. It is a moonscape or even looks like mars. There is bare soil with rocks on it and spectacular views. We can see across to Mauna Loa above the clouds . Partly a dirt track and partly paved. The jeep coped pretty well with it - the back end moves quite a lot on gravel and there are permanent ruts in the ground which are very hard and bumpy to drive over. There are at least a dozen telescopes up at the summit. It is very windy and even colder (48 degrees) so put on more clothes - hat etc and took a few photos and then headed back down again.

Stopped at the visitors centre and took off one of my two fleeces. Bought some souvenirs so can now say been there, done that and got the t-shirt!