Continued...
We returned to the Ka'u Desert for a second day in a row, my third time in the
past week. For the most part, we could avoid the rains that were pummeling other
parts of the island, and since Ingrid hadn't been able to join us yesterday, it
would give her a first chance at hiking in this volcanic Wilderness area. Our
targets were a pair of cones several miles from the highway, not particularly
easy to get to. After
finishing this in the morning, we spent the rest of the day
visiting various other small summits on the south side of the island. Much of
this was exploratory as we didn't have much beta, and consequently there was
limited success. Still, we had a grand time seeing new places and revisiting a
few old ones and generally staying dry.
Pu'u Kou - Yellow Cone
The Ka'u Desert Trail runs within a mile of these cones on their east side, but
using it would require extra miles and not be terribly convenient. Instead, we
started directly from the highway where it comes closest to our summits and use
an all cross-country route to reach them. The biggest unknown had to do with the
land ownership of the parcel next to the highway since the NPS park boundary
doesn't start until about a mile from the road at this location. We found no
fences, signs or other indications of private ownership, and were happy to be
able to simple park in and head off towards our
destinations. There was some jungle-like wading initially
sections (probably unnecessary), but this didn't last
more than about ten minutes. We found and began
enjoying a more leisurely walk across the lava fields. Native Ohi'a trees do
very well on such terrain and have not yet been displaced by more aggressive,
non-native versions. Their look somewhat like a bottlebrush.
The trees
and other vegetation thinned more as we continued east, initially heading off
towards another point to the north that we mistook for Pu'u Kou. We reached the
park boundary in about 45min, finding running
the length of the boundary as far as we could see. We went over the fence and
corrected our heading to the southwest once we got a visual bearing on Pu'u Kou.
Now moving over more desolate , we found
surprisingly brittle. Ingrid was a little nervous that these could
collapse onto underground lava tubes, and since she was the resident Hawaiian
among us, her nervousness had Eric and I a bit wary too.
We reached of Pu'u Kou an hour and a quarter after starting
out, finding it to be not a cinder cone, but a small built up
from a
localized outpouring of lava rather than a gaseous explosion. It was easily
scaled from the north side at class 2 (pretty much from any direction as well),
giving us from which to survey .
Besides all the
lava flows laid down in the 1970s, we noticed heavier clouds moving in from the
northeast. The rain we'd been avoiding had caught up with us and would start
coming down lightly even before we'd left the first summit. Yellow Cone was
located about 0.4mi to the south and it was easy enough to make our way between
the two, but the camera would stay in my pack to keep it from getting ruined
by the wetness that was now drifting down on us. We climbed Yellow Cone from the
north side and then descended the west side almost immediately, finding no good
reason to stay atop as the light rain continued. The rain would subside as we
made our way back towards our starting point and we found the return route had
fewer obstacles and less brush than our outbound route. We were back by 12:30p
and mostly dry, thanks to the wind that followed along with the clouds and rain.
Pu'u Kamaoa
We spent the next few hours mostly driving. After returning to the jeep we
headed south on SR11, intending to first visit a trio of summits in the
Kahuku Unit of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, found on the lower slopes of
Mauna Loa's Southwest Ridge. Having lived on the island for more than four
years now, even Ingrid didn't know about the existence of this section of the
park. Tom and I had stumbled upon it earlier in the week, but had only enough
time to climb one of the summits before the 4p closing time.
Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to us, the Park Service has it
due to low traffic - and
today was a Monday. With decent cell service, we were able to make alternate
plans and headed further around the southern end of the island on the highway
to the community of Ocean View. This lightly populated area has a huge footprint
on the southwest slopes of Mauna Kea, with many miles of straight roads laid
out on a regular grid. It reminds me of places like California City where
developers had huge plans that never quite materialized. There is little
industry and almost no employment opportunities, save for those willing to
commute to the resorts on the Kona Coast. There are almost 1,000 developed
sites and while some of these are kept nicely and a few are very nice, most are
rundown with old cars and other junk strewn about the large properties. The
name Ocean View
is pretty darn misleading - one can see the ocean on a crystal clear day
perhaps, but it is many miles from the highway and many more from the uphill
side where most of the residents are located. We found ourselves driving
through the nearly-empty streets heading uphill in search of a summit
(Pu'u Ohohia) that Don Nelson had recorded climbing in 2016. The summit is
located outside the development on NPS property, but it looked like the easiest
way to get there was through Ocean View. We eventually found our way blocked by
private property and signs indicating we couldn't get to the NPS lands from
inside Ocean View. More study online found there was a road running on NPS
lands just outside the community but by now our interest in this one had dropped
to zero. Instead, Ingrid found a named Pu'u just off the highway not found on
LoJ or PB. I was skeptical, but we paid because it was easy
enough. It turned out to be better than expected, with an
from the
1930s. Points to Ingrid. After this, we tried to visit a few LoJ points found
along the coast southwest of the highway. A very
can be taken to
reach it, going through private property that appears to have been abandoned.
Our jeep managed to get within about a mile of the closest one where we were
stopped by a steep, loose slope of volcanic rock that was more than the jeep
could manage without risking damage. With more time we might have just parked
and walked from here, but it was getting late in the day and time to start back.
Pu'u Ka'au
This was an easy stop on our way back to Hilo, an interesting little Pu'u that
Tom and I had visited a week earlier. Knowing the easiest way to reach it, we
wasted no time finding the dirt road that gets one to the coast on the outside
of Whittington Beach Park. The summit is no more than 10ft above the shoreline,
but it is found in a picturesque location with views of
, and estuary. After our short visit we
returned to the highway and headed
back to Ingrid's home on the rainy Hilo side where we were staying.
Continued...