Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa

Mauna Kea is technically the tallest mountain in the world! If you measure its height from the base on the ocean bottom it is over 33,000* feet high. Even from sea level, it is 13,796* feet and often has snow on it (skiing anyone?) (*Although both volcanoes change in height almost weekly due to lava upsurges and the extreme weight of each mountain constantly sinking them into the ocean).

Mauna Loa to the South is 13,677* feet above sea level. Mauna Loa is the largest volcano in the world. In fact, it is the largest projected land mass between the sun and Mars -- over 10,000 cubic miles in bulk! (A side-light is that the Mauna Loa map quadrangle is the one I am responsible to the U.S. Geological Survey for ground verification of satellite mapping).

Both can be accessed via "Saddle Road". Rental cars are not suppose to travel the road between the two volcanoes due to the isolation and road condition. However the road is not really that bad, but it is a very isolated area with little traffic. So check your car's emergency equipment before going there.

There is much to say about this area, and in the future I will add more specific information on the area, and more pictures too. Stay tuned...

I will be camping on Mauna Loa for a week in June of 2002. I will drive to 11,000' and park at the Weather Station. From there I will hike each day to verify information on the USGS Mauna Loa quadrangle map. I will be staying two nights in the cabin at the summit which is on the lip of the active caldera. Mauna Loa is the most massive mountain in the world. It's awesome weight actually dents the Pacific Plate that it rests upon, some 34,000 feet from its summit to its base on the Pacific Ocean bottom.

It is an active volcano with many active vents, rifts as well as the huge caldera which you can see in the picture as a depression in the summit.

There are about 15+ observatories owned by various countries of the world at the top of Mauna Kea. The summit is actually just several black cinder cones that have had their top leveled to build upon.

At night the observatories come alive with the influx of scientists, and the temperature drops to well below zero within five minutes of the spectacular sunset.

The conditions for viewing the universe are the best on the surface of this planet.

Want to see my photo journal trip up Mauna Loa? Yes


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(Amenities § Outside Tour § Inside Tour § Availability § Area Info. § Maps)