Our day started out like any other. Shawn was busy doing jobs around the hostel and I was earning my room and board there by laundering the sheets and various other things. Shawn got word that he would need to drive some professors up to the observatories for a tour from the people that run them at the top of Mauna Kea. Now this was a pretty big deal since you can drive up there, but the general public doesn't actually get to go into the observatories.
Here’s some background on Mauna Kea. At 13,796 feet, it is actually the tallest mountain in the world, although Mt Everest is the tallest mountain above sea level. The peak of Mauna Kea is about 30,000 feet above the ocean floor (where its base is).
If my memory severs me correctly, we were in a group of 3 vans-4x4, 15 passenger vans. You have to have 4x4 to get to the top of the mountain; it’s a rough, gravelly road. You have to stop at the visitors information center at around 9,000 feet to acclimate yourself so you don't get sick. There is information there about the mountain, maps, souvenirs and even hot chocolate and coffee. The drinks are a lifesaver up there, it's really cold and they hit the spot.
Once we acclimated 30 minutes-1 hour later, we headed up to the top. There are 5 or 6 observatories up there, with major telescopes to view the stars and do research with, etc. Everything is huge up there (Texas has no idea!). The buildings are big, the telescopes are huge, all the equipment is state of the art and viewing the stars from up there is indescribable. Not to mention the general view-vast openness, overlooking the other mountains and ocean. We walked with the group as they got a tour of the main observatory. At one point we walked past an area where they clean some of the mirrors from the telescopes. I took a picture of one, which we called our million dollar picture-the mirror cost 1 million dollars! It was about 6 feet tall and about 4 feet wide. You definitely don't want to slip and bump one of those! I wish I could find those pictures.
Once we were done with the tour, we watched the sunset from the top of Mauna Kea. It was beautiful to say the least. As it got dark, we headed down the mountain back to the visitor's center where we looked at the stars. All the lights in the cities below have amber street lights, so the light doesn't reflect up into the sky so you can see the stars better. Other guides had brought up their small telescopes so you could get a closer look at the other planets and the moon. Even with the naked eye, you could see the Milky Way in great detail. It was unbelievable! There were so many stars in the sky it was breathtaking. It seemed like you were so close to them you could almost touch them.
Shawn and I only took one trip up there, but it was a trip well worth taking. I would do it again in a minute. When we were in Hawaii, we knew we weren't going to be there forever, so we made the most of our time and tried to do as many trips as we could without doubling anything-even though many of our trips were worth taking over and over again.
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