The Big Island: Mauna Kea & Akaka Falls (Day 8) ~ Travel Bites

Another early day of exploring began. First, we'd be heading to Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in the world - yes, it is the tallest from top to bottom, and Mount Everest is the highest peak. Before heading there, we knew we were only going to go to the visitor centre (6600ft) and not the summit (~14000ft). This altitude is higher than the summit of Haleakala, on Maui (~10000ft) and it is a steep dirt road to get to the top. You'll void most rental contracts if you drive to the summit, however, there are some companies which will allow driving up (you definitely need 4x4). Also, altitude sickness is common at the summit and you have to be over age 16 to go. If you plan to go to the summit, they recommend staying at the visitor centre for an hour to acclimatize before proceeding.

To make good time we decided to get there by taking Saddle Road from the west. Most of the comments online don't recommend doing this, however, it wasn't going to void our rental contract so we decided to go for it. The first section of road is a bit rough, but it was still drivable and then we encountered a few 1 lane bridges (a piece of cake after the Hana Highway).

On the way to Mauna Kea

Entering U.S army training area

The road is really not that bad at all and eventually turns into a four lane highway when passing through the military base area. Be aware of everything going on while driving, since there are tank crossings, and other military crossings along the road.

We stopped at an area near the bottom to take some photos and then continued to head up. Driving up was the usual mountain drive and it was very scenic. There are places to stop and take pics along the drive up. The road is steep, so make sure the next car is very far behind because it may take some time to get up to speed.
There's no entry fee and the parking lot at the visitor centre is small, which eventually results in people parking on the road just outside. There is water available and a small shop inside, and there is also a video playing inside with a number of information boards and artifacts, for those interested in the science and history.

There is a short Silversword loop trail near the picnic tables and there is also a more challenging trail up a cinder cone on the other side of the road. Of course, we decided we wanted to hike up the cinder cone with the two kids. The trail is actually quite easy, but near the top it turns into steep loose rock. I chose to stay behind while Nigel and Evan continued to the top.

another cinder cone in the distance

looking below

The dirt and the rock are all red (again, very martian looking) and at the top was a spiritual site. The boys took their pictures, and didn't touch anything or go into the spiritual site, since these sites are to be respected and are still in use by the natives. On the trail we were also able to see a volcano in the distance spewing some smoke.

Spiritual site with stacked rocks

volcano in the distance

Mauna Kea has about 100 cinder cones scattered around it and there are many sacred sites on the mountain which visitors are told not to disturb or go into if encountered.

There are scheduled ranger guided tours to the summit, however, you have to drive your vehicle in convoy to the top. We didn't do this, but I'm sure it would be fun. The weather is cold at the top and you can also expect winter conditions with snow - some people go snowboarding at the summit. There are organized tours to the summit as well, which I would recommend if you want to view the sunrise or sunset from the top. I wouldn't want to be driving up and down Mauna Kea in the dark.

Driving down the mountain you need to switch into low gear so you don't burn out your brakes. We also noticed ramps from the road going into the bush, marked with signs 'runaway truck ramp'. I guess we knew what to do now if our brakes failed. When we got to the bottom we went east on Saddle Road making our way to Akaka Falls. We can say that we drove all of Saddle Road without any issue.

To get to the Akaka falls State Park, we had to drive through Hilo (which was sunny at the time) and head north along the coast, turning left at the sign directing to Akaka Falls. When you're near Hilo (pron.: Hee-lo) you can start surfing the radio stations; we settled on Hilo's only Korean Pop station (which was fun to listen to, despite not understanding the language). We drove through a quaint small town and then past a number of country properties with fruit stands, which added to the beauty of the scenery.
When we got to Akaka Falls the parking lot was full and we had to park on the road just outside where there were already a number of cars parked. This place was very busy. There is a guy at the trailhead collecting entrance fees and it was $1 per adult walking in (the kids were free). If you park in the lot it's $5 per vehicle.

There area stone steps going down this trail and it was actually a very short and easy hike (0.4 mi). There are a couple of places you may want to stop to get pictures of smaller waterfalls and streams and then there is a covered area to enjoy the view of the falls themselves. Akaka Falls plunges 442ft into a gorge and is well fenced (kid friendly) at most places along the hike.

the trail as seen from the entrance

a smaller stream

Akaka Falls

at the road side near the park entrance

On the drive out we stopped at one of the fruit stands for some fresh cold coconut. The guy had them in a cooler with ice and chopped the tops of with a machete. Yummy! and just what we needed after a long hot day of hiking. Evan totally enjoyed his, eventually falling asleep while sipping away. We drove back through Hilo to get to CR11 back through the south of the island to Kona. When we were going past the harbour we noticed NCL's Pride of America Cruise Ship close by (easily identified by the markings on the hull).

Most of the police cars we saw on The Big Island were unmarked regular vehicles (minivans, compact cars, pickup trucks, etc.) with a blue beacon light on the top, which was interesting since it catches you off guard if you like to speed - we followed the speed limits and witnessed from others' choices that speeding is enforced.
On the way back we stopped again at Volcanoes National Park, since it was on the way, just to take in some of the views again (and get a little driving break) and then continued back to Kona. On our way back we were hoping we'd be able to catch a sunset without clouds and Vog everywhere, and we were lucky enough that the sky was clear and we happened upon a scenic point turn off just in time for sunset - it helped that it was also close to the hotel.