From Sea Level to 13,000 Feet

Heading back to the hotel after hiking and driving down the Waipio Valley, we noticed that we were right by Saddle Road, which is a crazy two lane road that bisects the island and leads to Mauna Kea, the tallest island mountain in the world! Apparently, if you measured it from its base at the base of the ocean floor, it would be taller than Everest.

Anyway, we had heard that it is best to go there at night because you would be able to see more stars than you've ever seen before, because it's so high and it's above the clouds, and the atmosphere is very dry up there. But we decided to go ahead and go during the day since we were already passing by the road to get there.
Love being above the clouds!

It's much colder up there. Luckily, we were prepared and put on some jeans that we had stashed in the Jeep. It was about 50 degrees!

Astronomers work up here with powerful telescopes because of the great conditions for viewing the stars.

13,000 feet marker