Spokaneman

For any of you going to the BI, I suggest taking the time to go to the Summit of Manua Kea. It requires renting a 4X4 (they won't let you go past the visitor center with a passenger car), but it is an awsome trip. If you leave Kona at about 4 PM it allows plenty of time to get to the summit to watch the sunset and then you can spend a couple of hours at the visitor center for the free star gazing through thier telescopes and still be back to Kailua-Kona before midnight.

If you go take some warm cloths (a hooded sweat shirt fleece pants and gloves worked well for me)and fill your car. There's no services once you leave Kailua-Kona.

A truly memorable experience.

Nancy03

Spokaneman - Thanks for the post. We are planning on doing this in Sept. We have rented a 4x4 for this reason. We will be staying at Kona Village. On the Manua Kea website, it says to be at the visitors center at 2 pm to "sign-in". Leaving Kona at 4 sounds much better to me.

Would you please elaborate on your visit. Leaving at 4 pm - what time did you get to the visitors center? Was it a weekend or weekday? Did you go up in caravan style - follow the leader or go at your own pace. How long after the sunset were you able to view the stars? When where you back in Kona?

Thanks.

Spokaneman

We left Kailua Kona at 4:00 PM and were at the Visitor center by about 5:15. The trip over the saddle road was interesting but not nearly so bad as the car rental companies would lead you to believe. Be careful of the one lane bridges and yield to the "locals" who commute from Hilo to west Hawaii and will tailgate you into submission if you don't drive 2X the posted limit.

As I said, fill you car as there are no services and your vehicle will use more gas than you can imagine as you climb nearly three miles.

After the manditory 30 minute acclimatization stop at the visitor center its about another 25 minutes (five miles) to the summit.

Its mostly dirt road from the VC to the summit, very steep and winding. I live in mountain country and the road is much steeper than anything I've encountered. But, it is well maintained and not a particlularly difficult journey.

That put us at the summit about 1 hour before sundown which gave us a bit of time to look around at the big telescope buildings and to hike to the summit where the Hawaiians have placed as small ceremonial pyre.

The downhill drive was interesting, I used low range, second gear on the Yukon I was driving and still had to use the brakes a fair amount. You want to be very careful with the brakes as there are no guard rails and the drop off is basicly forever.

Be sure to stop for the stargazing at the V/C on the way down. The narrator does an excellent job, and we were astounded at the clarity of the stars. We spent about 1 1/2 hours there on the way down.

The V/C has a Kailua phone number. Call before you leave to make sure there isn't any weather problems. They will suggest a departure time from Kailua to coincide with the current sundown time.

Take warm clothes, it is very cold at the top and at the V/C after dark.

A word of caution, I am a marathon runner and still found that even moderate walking elevated my heart rate well over anything I encounter short of doing wind sprints. We all had pretty bad headaches until we got back down below the 5000 ft level and my oldest daughter got a fair case of hypoxia with stomach cramps, vomiting etc. She was ok by morning but was pretty miserable until then. So depending on your physical condition, you may want to limit you time at the summit to just a few minutes, or spend more time at the V/C before heading up.

Nancy03

Thanks for all of the detail Spokaneman. Were you back to Kona by 10? or later?

fdecarlo

The summit of Mauna Kea is subject to snow during winter months, and can go from crystal clear to zero visibility whiteout in a matter of minutes. I'd strongly recommend doing one of the guided tours during winter (and late fall/early spring) instead of trying it yourself.

Spokaneman

We were back by about 11:00. We drove fairly slowly on the saddle road after dark.

I would also agree with the last post, in the winter you would want to watch the weather very carefully. There are some pictures of a storm in 1990 that dropped 12 feet of snow and stranded people up there for three days. My guess is that is pretty rare.

The commercial tours are very spendy, and it did not appear that they stopped at the VC for star gazing or if they did they were gone by the time we got there.

Meesthare

I would also recommend going with one of the organized tour companies, for the reasons mentioned by the other posters. We went with Hawaii Forest and Trail a couple of years ago and were delighted with the experience. They certainly did stop for stargazing after we had been to the summit; the driver had his own telescope and we set it up in the parking lot at the Visitors' Center. While we gazed, he gave us cookies and hot chocolate. Another advantage was that he had parkas in the van, so we didn't have to bring our own. And most significantly: he had oxygen aboard, and if you have a problem with the altitude this is the best, quickest, and safest remedy.

hawaiiantraveler

I suggest leaving even earlier and stopping a few times on your way up. The altitude at the top is 13,600 feet. Going from sea level to that height in 2 hours is a little crazy and just asking for a major headache. If coming from Kona make your first stop right after the Pohakuloa training camp at a little over 7,000 feet. The view towards Mauna Loa has six or seven cinder cones that are 5 to 8 miles apart from Mauna Loa towards Mauna Kea. This shows you the path of the different eruptions over the thousands of years (just awesome in my opinion). Make your next stop at the visitors center 9,000 feet. Catch your breath, look around the center (and use the last bathroom you'll see for a while) before you take that last steep climb to the top. Rushing through this experience always leads to headache, nausea and a miserable time. It is very cold at night anytime of year at that height so dress accordingly. When we were kids, in the winter we used to got to the top to snow ski in the morning then drive home to surf in the afternoon. Not many places in the world you can do that in one day. Aloha!

Spokaneman

Hawaiian Traveler, I was intrigued with the idea of skiing Manua Kea.

Out of Curosity, what is the general route down, and about how much vertical do you usually get? Do you do several runs in a day? The logistics must be interesting. I assume you have to start and end pretty close to the road, or do you climb to the actual summit?

If I'm ever there when snow is on the mountain, I'm going to find a way to ski it. It must be a real heart stopper.

hawaiiantraveler

You 4-wheel drive up the roadway to the top and ski down. There are no lifts or runs, you make your own
It can get pretty hairy at times and with the altitude you are above Colorado's higher ski resorts. The lower the snow level the better the conditions. I remember skiing all the way down to the 7500 foot level one winter. Alot of the locals also innertube and of course snowboard. At the top it's about a Colorado/Utah blue to easier black level. In CA they would consider it a black diamond at the top. Hope this helps. Aloha!