Lunar Landscapes

Astronauts have trained on Mauna Kea because, apparently, it resembles the surface of the Moon.  I enhanced my "other-worldly" experience by listening to Radiohead (Kid A and OK Computer) and Pink Floyd (Meddle and Animals) on the way up.

It's pretty cool when you start looking down at the clouds.  I've lived in mountainous places before, but getting to the top of Mauna Kea involves going from sea-level to almost 14,000 feet above in less than 90 minutes.  I assumed that since I'm in relatively decent shape and have lived in the mountains before, I could skip the recommended 30 minute acclimatization at the 9,000 ft. Visitor Center.  I was wrong.  Whew!!  I should have known when I made a brief stop at the location in the pic above, probably around 11,000 feet and took a short walk around and got extremely winded.  I then ignored my body's warning signals and proceeded straight to the top.

The top is pretty cool, even if you're not a complete astronomy geek.  I am not, but I think space is cool and perplexing.  I took a 100 level Astronomy course at Wayne State University in my early 20's thinking it would be a fun, easy way to get a science credit.  It was hard.  We didn't just look at stars and talk about constellations all night like I expected.

Mauna Kea hosts some of the most advanced telescopes in the world.  Its consistently clear air and low light pollution (see Hilo and Kona's dim, yellow lights at night) from surrounding cities provide astronomers with ideal conditions for viewing the heavens.

But moving on, it was 80 degrees when I left Hilo and 30 degrees when I got to the top of Mauna Kea.  The cold wasn't so bad.  I grew up in Michigan.  I can take it.  But after a short hike I started feeling light headed and was really short of breath.  Yes, maybe I'm not in as good of shape as I thought, but seriously, I was not feeling well.  So, I descended.  My plan was to stay until sunset because I had heard it's worth it, but it would mean staying up at this elevation for another three hours and I thought it would be better to go down for a half hour or so, acclimate, and then come back up.  It worked.  I went down to about 9,000 feet and hung out for about 45 minutes until the light-headedness went away and then cruised back up to the top.

Now invigorated and feeling spry, I decided to cruise around (by car) and look at the beauty and the weirdness of this "Astronomy Domine(ted)" mountain top.  The dome shaped structures, which were much bigger than I had imagined, and swiveling space dishes were really cool to look at, and broke up the otherwise completely barren, wind-scarred landscape of the mountain-top.

So I was actually beginning to get bored.  None of the observatories were actually open, it was cold, and the sun was so intense you couldn't really hang out outside for long even if you wanted to.  Eventually though, I killed enough time to make it to sunset.  That's when the place literally came to life.  As I sat in my truck, the colors on the horizon slowly started to become more vibrant as I looked out over the ocean.  Maui could be seen poking through the clouds in the distance.  Oh, and it started to get REALLY cold.

Glad I packed the ol' ski parka w/hood.  Let's start the show!

Pictures don't do it justice.  They never seem to.  As I was watching the natural beauty appear before me, I started hearing weird buzzing and whirring sounds all around me.  As I looked around, nearly all of the buildings, dishes, and other objects were set into motion, warming up for the real show that happens nightly within the spacey Pac-Man shaped structures.  It was cool just to see everything moving all of the sudden.  Most of the huge observatories swivel, so you're looking at the spherical equivalent of a 10 story building slowly rotating.

On my way down I noticed that the parking lot at the Visitor's Center was packed so I stopped in to see what all the fuss was about.  A bunch of amateur astronomers had set up their telescopes and were letting people view the stars.  It was crowded and I wasn't feeling patient enough to wait in line so I just sat and stared at all the stars that could be seen with the naked eye.

Again, The Big Island delivers.