Mauna Kea - Hawaii

Despite the lunar landscape below, it's not the moon. If I had actually escaped the Earth's gravity and found myself in in outerspace, I feel I would get more attention than this barely read blog would provide. Hopefully, I would make the news, maybe right after the latest on Brangelina's latest adoption.
But no, that isn't the moon though it is getting up there. It's just under 14,000 feet, or just under about one 90,000th of the distance between the Earth and the moon. In astronomical terms, it's tiny. However, in human terms that is really freakin high.
High like Dave Chappelle in Half Baked high.

Ok, so maybe not high like that. Maybe not quite Mount Everest High. Or maybe it is. See the picture is from the top of Mauna Kea, highest point on Earth if you are measuring from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. If I were reading someone brag about reaching the highest point on Earth with that measurement, my first thought would be to question the validity of the 'from the bottom of the Pacific' qualifier. That's like winning your age group in a 5K in which you were the only participant. Not that something like that ever happened to me... However, I am not here to brag about reaching the top of Mauna Kea. I am here to tell you I am lucky that I got down from way up there.

The road to the top of Mauna Kea is a long and winding one. Not too many people live near there. The interior of the Big Island is sparsely populated and is mostly split into large ranches. The Saddle Road traverses the Big Island and serves as the only access to reach the road leading to the summit. The first portion of the road leading to the summit is relatively well maintained since it leads to the Mauna Kea Observatory which hosts several multinational astronomical observatories.

However, the paved road stops at the visitor's center which is still about 5,000 feet short, elevation wise, from the summit. The signs from there all recommend 4-Wheel drive vehicles, but since when does Pics of Me in Front of Stuff let signs stop slow it down?

Never!

Well at least never when it relates to reaching one of the highest points on Earth.

That's right, do not recommend things to me via sign in Hawaii because I am just going to ignore them. And so ignoring recommendations designed for my and CP's safety, we plowed forward on a harrowing ride up the last 5,000 feet in elevation. The ride up the dirt road, which would have taken maybe 15 to 20 minutes had it been paved or not at 10,000 plus feet without guardrails, was a harrowing 45 minute trip. It was an incredibly scenic ride up the mountain, but I would be lying if I told you I was looking any way but forward while gripping the wheel with white knuckles.

Getting your rental car stuck on the 'World's Tallest Mountain' is not a good way to spend your vacation. And once we maneuvered off the dirt road to where the paved road started again we almost did!
From the summit, several observatories are...observable..in the distance and naturally we were compelled to try and reach them. However, at 14,000 feet going up a hill is not an easy proposition for a 4-cylinder Dodge Avenger. Whether it was the thin air, my inability to keep my foot firmly planted on the gas pedal, or the 230 lbs of dude behind the wheel the tiny car just could not make it up down the valley and up the next hill to that distant observatory. To add a little more excitement to the trip, I could not force the car up the hill down which we had come.

Think it's easy to push a car up the side of a mountain?

It's not, I learned the hard way.

Fortunately, when the the vehicle lost 230 lbs, CP was able to inch the car up the original hill and aim the car back downhill towards safety or at least towards the windy guardrail-less road and eventually the safety of our hotel.