Hawaii’s Big Island…Beyond Sun and Sand

by Donna Yuen

My heart skips a beat and I offer up a silent prayer as we hit a wall of thick white fog.  The sinuous gravel road before us unfolds just a few feet at a time, and I’m terrified that my friend steering our four-wheel drive vehicle might blindly veer right off the 4,205 meter high mountain. Then, all of a sudden, the fog dissipates, revealing a lunar-like landscape; snow covered volcanic craters loom against the horizon, and a blanket of soft clouds drifts below us. Ahead, shrines made of jagged volcanic rocks stand like sentinels watching over a timeless landscape.  This is Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii.

“White Mountain” or Mauna Kea as it is known to the Hawaiians is made up of cinder cones which still show evidence of glaciations occurring over the last 200,000 years.  The dormant volcano surrounded by snow-capped peaks is the highest point in the Hawaiian chain of islands.  With its surreal and stark beauty, it isn’t surprising that native Hawaiians consider this to be a sacred site.

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With 40% of the mountain’s summit above the earth’s atmosphere the altitude plus the dry climatic conditions and clear skies offer ideal conditions for leading edge astronomical research. Sponsored by eleven different countries, including Canada, Japan, France, Chile, the US and the UK, observatories on Mauna Kea boast thirteen telescopes, including the world’s largest optical/infrared telescope. Star gazers flock here on clear nights in the hope of catching a glimpse of distant galaxies.

At -3° centigrade, the balmy temperatures on the beach in Kailua-Kona seem like a distant memory. My friends who live on the Big Island are frequent visitors to Mauna Kea and have come well prepared with food, warm clothing and thermoses of hot tea which we enjoy as we browse through the exhibits in the Visitor’s Centre. At the summit, I dismount slowly from the vehicle, mindful of the high altitude and consequent physical effects.

“Go ahead and wander off, this is a sacred place to be enjoyed and absorbed. But just remember, move slowly,” my friend cautions.

A sharp wind makes my footing even more unstable and I stumble from the dizzying effects of Acute Mountain Sickness and the harsh gusts. The snow covered terrain melds into a sea of clouds, seemingly spread out just a few meters below me.   I stand on the edge of a precipice gazing at the earth beneath me. The vastness is breathtaking; I stand in awe.

I notice snowboarding tracks tracing nearby hillocks and as I do so, a snowboarder comes into view, riding down a gentle slope. What an experience that must be—snowboarding a volcano above the cloud cover!  I watch him enviously and resolve to pack a snowboard on my next visit here. 

Shafts of pink and orange light pierce the clouds as the sun begins its descent, its rays turning the ice-encrusted mountain side into a shower of tiny glittering diamonds.  The remnants of a pink hued disc are seen dissipating into the misty clouds…and the sunset is gone. As a deep maroon seeps into the skyline the drop in temperature quickly becomes evident. The darkness triumphs as night sets in and it is time for our departure. I am reluctant to leave. I am caught up in the mystical spell of the god Wakea, the originator of all things Hawaiian.  I gaze out into the dark sky which is now speckled with bright blazing stars as we cautiously begin our dangerous descent in the dim light. A nearly full moon illuminates our path downward, shooting stars streak across the sky leaving a disappearing trace of light. For decades Hawaiians have come here in search of mana – a divine power.  It is easy to understand why.  

If you go:

Ensure that you only attempt the summit in a four wheel drive vehicle.

Numerous local car rental agencies prohibit their customers from taking their vehicles up to the summit.

Spend at least 30 minutes acclimatizing to the altitude at the Visitors Center as visitors may suffer from Acute Mountain Sickness.

Be prepared for cold weather.

There are no public amenities beyond the Visitors Center.

Photos by Donna Yuen