Monday, August 30, 2010

On the Ascent to Mauna Kea

One day, we decided to drive a road called Saddle Road, because it cuts right between the two largest volcanoes on Hawaii, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. The above shot is one that I took as we drove up the winding road that switched-back up Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea sits at about 14,000 feet above sea level, but the interesting thing is that it actually starts its ascent way below sea level, so that it's total height is about 30,000 feet - higher than Everest! Of course, no one counts what's ever below sea level, so we're left with 14,000.
This is a view of Mauna Loa from almost the top of Mauna Kea. I say "almost the top" because our poor little rental car just wouldn't go any higher than about 12,000 feet. It just stopped advancing up the road, even tho Jeff had the accelerator floored! Since we couldn't make it up to the top of Mauna Kea, we didn't even try to get to the top of Mauna Loa. We knew we'd never make it! Enjoy the beautiful sky, clouds and volcano!

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