Climbing the Largest Volcano in the world and LAVA

Hello from Hawaii

Patty and I made good use of our days off on Monday and Tuesday. On Monday we spent some time in Hilo and then drove up Mauna Kea, the tallest mountain in the world. Let me explain. Mauna Kea is roughly 13,800 feet above sea level and another 18,000 feet from the sea floor to sea level for a total of just under 32,000 feet. So as I tell the tourists just because over half of the mountain is underwater it is still taller than Everest. We were able to drive our car to 9000 feet and then caught a ride up with someone who had a 4 Wheel Drive. The top of the mountain is covered with 12 Observatories, check out www.ifa.hawaii.edu and we were able to shoot some pictures on a beautiful day.

We came down from the summit and had an early supper at the visitor center and then went down Mauna Kea to the Saddle Road and then climbed back up to 11,000 feet to the Mauna Loa Weather observatory chekc out; www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/mlo/index.html

We were able to stay at the observatory and got an early start up to the summit of Mauna Loa after shooting some sunrise photo's. We started at 6 am and had 6 miles + up to the summit at 13,700 feet. We were up there by 9:30 and spent about an hour enjoying the Caldera and the beautiful day. We then flew down the mountain across an awful lot of old lava. The trail was marked and followed some of the smooth pahoehoe flows. It sure is easier going downhill, especially at altitude, but we were successful and can now lay claim to having climbed the largest volcano on the plannet. Mauna Loa is approx. 13,700 feet above sea level and another 14,000 from the sea floor to sea level. It is also so heavy that it compresses the sea floor another 28,000 feet so now Patty and I have bragging rights to climbing a mountain that is really 56,000 feet. From the top the island looks a lot smaller as you can see 4 of the five volcano's of the island. It was a good day with great weather.

We came down from Mauna Kea had an early supper in Hilo and drove to the end of Highway 130. This is where the lava is currently flowing. We joined a group from the park that had special permission to walk out to the flow. The lava is flowing on Private Property, not in the Park, and the viewing is managed by the county. They normally do not let people past an observation point they have set up, but we had special permission and a permit to go out to the flow. We had one of the eruption specialists with us from the park and it was his job to keep us safe. This is a safe flow, but, it was a little different when we walked on the top of a lava tube and could see and feel the heat of the lava below our feet. It really was amazing watching the flow up close and need I say that both Patty and I shot quite a few pictures. When we came back to the "public" viewing area, people were pretty envious. If this flow had been in the park everyone would be allowed to walk right up to it, but, the county does now allow that to happen at this flow.

It really was a great day. I will be paddling in another canoe race this weekend on the Kona side of the island and we will have to see how team "white lightning" does this time. Take care.