Let me start off by saying that watching the sunset from Mauna Kea is unlike any experience you've ever had before, ever. You can watch the clouds float by below you and undulate as they rise up the terrain and hills below you while they shimmer gold and red from the setting sun. You feel like Zeus sitting on his throne on Mount Olympus looking down upon all of creation. Although this was written by Mark Twain about Haleakala, I believe it still very much fits for Mauna Kea, "I felt like the Last Man, neglected of the judgment, and left pinnacled in mid-heaven, a forgotten relic of a vanished world."
In terms of getting there, here are a few key pointers:
1) Most rental car companies specifically prohibit going past the visitor center at 9,000 feet (as it's offroad for most of the rest of the road to the summit). Harpers is the lone exception (that I am aware of).
2) There is 40% less oxygen at the summit than there is at sea level. So - if you have asthma, breathing problems, are severely overweight or have any other serious medical condition, you may want to rethink visiting the summit at 13,796 feet. Most people can handle the visitors center at 9,000 feet. Airliners typically pressurize their cabin to about 8,000 feet equivalent so the visitors center won't feel much higher than that. Stopping at the visitors center for an hour before hand can help you aclimatize to the altitude better.
3) Eat a little something and make sure you are well hydrated before going to the summit. Your body is going to have a hard enough time at that altitude, so make sure you've got a good sugar level by eating something first. Also, people forget that the summit is a desert and is very dry. You will get dehydrated VERY quickly which can compound altitude sickness which brings me to my next point...
4) Headaches, nausea, fatigue, pins and needles feeling, drowsiness, persistant rapid pulse, peripheral edema (swelling of hands, feet, and face) - these are all initial symptoms of altitude sickness. It can onset quickly and there's no real way to tell who is susceptable and who is not. If you start experiencing these, get down the mountain IMMEDIATELY, or if you are incapable of doing so, immediately alert a park ranger. The good news is, it can pretty much be immediately cured by descending. The bad news is, if you ignore these symptoms - altitude sickness CAN KILL YOU. I don't mean to be dramatic, but it is quite serious.
5) Going in late spring, summer or early fall? Bring warm clothes that you would normally wear on a really chilly fall day in New England. Going in late fall, winter, early spring? Bring clothes like you are climbing Mount Everest. Seriously. At altitude, due to the reduced oxygen, your body cannot produce heat nearly as effectively as it does at sea level. You (and your extremities) will get cold MUCH faster than you normally would so even though the temperature may dip down to 20°F or so, it'll feel like well below 0. In addition, you can usually expect some sort of wind at the summit (sometimes extremely fast wind too!) Also, something I learned from experience - you know those little body heater packs that warm up when you take them out of their foil package? They don't work at the summit - there's not enough oxygen in the air to catalyse the reaction in them. They work at the visitor center level though.
6) You need a vehicle with low geared 4WD (aka a Jeep). Funny enough, you'll fishtail a little bit more with a 4WD going up than you do with a 2WD. Going down, USE LOW GEAR AND DON'T RIDE YOUR BRAKES! Just for emphasis, USE LOW GEAR AND DON'T RIDE YOUR BRAKES! People have burned out their brakes going down the 8,000 vertical feet to Saddle road, lost control and died. Not to mention, if you have an accident on the mountain, you can expect a towing bill of around $1,000. So do yourself a favor and USE LOW GEAR AND DON'T RIDE YOUR BRAKES! Also, you may wish to bring an air pump and tire gauge with you. As you ascend, the pressure in your tires increases. I've actually blown the the bead on the tire because the pressure got too high. I usually let 10psi out of my tires before I ascend and pump them up again at the bottom.
7) At the summit, you can't look through any of the telescopes (they don't work like that anyways - they are all mostly remote controlled from Kona, Hilo, Waimea or somewhere else on the globe.) There is a visitor gallery where you can look at the internal workings at the Keck telescope but they keep business hours there and I think they lock the doors around 4:30 or so. There is a bathroom there as well.
8) The visitors center is a definite "must-stop-at" location. There are bathrooms there and they have a pretty cool gift shop with lots of Mauna Kea and Hawaii type gifts (my personal favorite are the replica USGS Mauna Kea Summit Markers - It's always a fun gag to show it to someone and go, "Look what I found just laying on the ground at the top of the mountain".) They host a free nightly stargazing program that is put on by volunteers. They actually have some really good telescopes and are generally very knowledgable. It's always good to grab some hot chocolate or coffee and look at the cosmos for a while.
9) Make sure you have a full tank of gas before you leave to go to Mauna Kea. There is no gas anywhere from one side of Saddle Road to the other and you will use lots of gas getting to the summit and back. Because of the altitude, your car is starving for air and will use LOTS more gas. I had the gauge on my Jeep tell me 4MPG as I was driving near the summit...and it's not a short drive to the summit.
10) Watch out for cows while driving up the access road. There is a reason they have "invisible cow" t-shirts and bumper stickers in the visitor center gift shop.
11) Last but certainly not least, please leave Mauna Kea as you found it. If you brought it in, bring it out. Photograph, but don't touch the flora and fauna - much of it only exists on Mauna Kea and nowhere else in the world. With that we can ensure future generations enjoy the same grandiose views and wonderment that you can experience.
I hope I didn't scare you guys too much with all the warnings as it really is one of those trips you'll always remember and treasure. You just need to plan ahead, travel smart and take precautions and you should be all set! If anyone has any questions that you don't feel I answered here, please feel free to contact me on TripAdvisor!
















