Continued...
My last day in Hawaii was spent in the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve on the
southeast slopes of Mauna Kea. Signs in other parts of the forest reserve we
had encountered previously suggested this southeast entrance road off the
paved Mauna Kea Rd was closed, but as we came to find, the road is open, even
if a bit rough. This gave us access to a host of puu's around the 9,000-foot
level where we spent half a day doing as much driving as we did hiking. The
weather forecast had been for mostly sunny skies, but changed dramatically
by morning, bringing heavy overcast and drizzle. The views were almost
completely lacking as we found ourselves inside the dense clouds most of the
day with only occasional vistas. The road and surrounding public
lands are mostly
used by hunters. In mid-week, it seemed we had the place to ourselves and never
saw another soul the whole time we were on R-1, the main dirt road going around
Mauna Kea.
Pu'u Kole
A subsidiary road off R-1 gets one within 1/3mi on the north side. From the
satellite view, it appears there is a swath of a'a lava (the rough, hard to
travel over variety) between
and the base of the road. On the
way up we tried to avoid this section by skirting around it some, but it turned
out to not be as loose and crumbly as feared. On the way back we took the
direct route which turned out to be fairly quick and easy. of
the cinder cone have almost no vegetation and is open to
views (normally), much like most of the puu's we visited today.
Pu'u Kaupakuhale
This proved the most scenic of the day's selections. Following a steep uphill
climb on compacted cinder with decent footing that took less than 25min, we
found ourselves just and the top of the lower cloud
layer. This gave us to snow-capped Mauna Loa to the south
and some of the higher features on Mauna Kea above us to the west.
Pu'u Ka'iwi'iwi
A very easy hike that took less than 5min to reach
on the downhill side of .
Pu'u Ulaulau
This on is found on PB but not LoJ. It takes only 10min to hike out over
to reach . There's no
discernable prominence to the summit that we could tell.
Pu'u Kanakaleonui/Pu'u Holei
This was the most interesting hike. Pu'u Kanakaleonui is considered a sacred
mountain and , but is allowed. A
leads to
the top in less than ten minutes. The rock here is more interesting than found
on other puu's of the day, mostly a layer of cinder cone with larger rocks atop
it, some the result of lava bombs, others stacked by humans, some with
curiously smooth and twisted shapes. The heavy fog enveloping the mountain gave
an air of solemnity to our travels across it. We the
opposite side,
descending further downhill than we'd started, reaching
before a final short climb to the , Pu'u Holei. There is
an of Pu'u Kanakaleonui's crater from this point. After
reaching the top we ,21>reversed our route
back over the first summit to at the jeep not long
before 1:30p. There were more summits to visit further along the road, but we
had to call it a day and turn around since I had a flight to catch. Good to
know there are more puu's awaiting me on my next visit...