Where are we today? Dave - 13,800 feet high on a volcano. Elizabeth,at the craft market Hilo.

- February 07, 2024

My honey, who may have a slight case of Covid, had an amazing day. He joined two van-fulls of people who were driven to the top of the Big Island’s volcano by husband and wife world travelers/tour guides/teachers of hot yoga. The group of about twenty stopped at the visitors center at 9,000 feet to acclimate before going on to 13,800 feet. (The park rangers require all visitors to do this. On the return trip, the rangers take your vehicle's brake temperature at the center before letting you descend further.)

Once at the peak, Dave’s O2 saturation dropped to 80% at one point, and he was dizzy walking around, but he loved it!

While there, the folks at the NASA telescopes invited the group in to see how things work. No one can live at 13,800 feet, but the scientists and park rangers live at about 9,000 and come up to the summit for shifts.

The Big Island (Hawaii), like most of its neighbors, has many microclimates. While Dave donned layers against the freezing weather at Mauna Kea’s barren summit, I walked around the craft markets in short sleeves and enjoyed Hilo's tropical vegetation. When I think of Hawaii, snow doesn’t come to mind, but the peaks in the Hawaiian islands do see accumulation. There were patches of it left on Mauna Kea from an earlier snowfall.

Did you know that

1) Hilo is the wettest place in the US? It rains 275 days a year.

2) You can see the tallest volcano on Maui from the summit of Mauna Kea, where Dave was?

3) Mauna Kea is one of five volcanos that make up the Big Island (six if you count an underwater volcano)?

4) Mauna Kea is the highest peak in Hawaii and the second highest peak of an island in the world?

5) Mauna Kea is inactive, but its twin neighbor, Mauna Loa, is the Earth’s largest active volcano by weight and volume? It last erupted in 2022.

Here are more photos of Hilo's Japanese gardens, Rainbow Falls, and Mauna Kea.