Photos: Cycling and driving the "tallest" mountain on earth - Mauna Kea, Hawaii

Quoted message said:

The bike ride and drive up Mauna Kea and the view from the top was
literally out of this world:

http://www.steephill.tv/2006/mauna-kea/

Thanks for posting this. My brother and I did something similar the
month before, over Thanksgiving week 2005. The general intent was to
travel from Sea Level to top of Mauna Kea under our own power.
However, we split it into four parts:

Day #1. Cycle from Kona to Saddle Road and stay in
Mauna Kea State Park
Day #2. Cycle from Mauna Kea State Park to the Onizuka
visitor center and back. In the evening go up for
the sunrise and to tour the CFHT telescope
(my other brother works for CFHT).
Day #3. Hike from the Onizuka visitor center to the
summit and back.
Day #4. Cycle downhill from Mauna Kea State Park
back to Kona.

Some photos from this trip: http://www.jeanbert.com/hawaii/index.html

I'm impressed at your cycling the entire route to the visitor center.
I took my time and ended up walking up some of those 17% grades...

--mev, Mike Vermeulen

I hope you picked a good day/time to cycle from Kona to Saddle Rd
because we found the roads leading up to Saddle Road very busy. We
started our ride from the Mauna Kea State Recreation Area. Where you
camping each night on Mauna Kea? I didn't see any campgrounds. Was that
"Winding Road, Next 41 Miles" taken on Saddle Road, I vaguely remember
seeing it?

Looks like you had a good time too.

cheers,
Steve
www.steephill.tv bike travelogue

Quoted message said:

I hope you picked a good day/time to cycle from Kona to Saddle Rd
because we found the roads leading up to Saddle Road very busy.

We cycled on Monday morning of Thanksgiving week. That upper road is
busy though wasn't too bad when we were there. The lower road and
then going up via Waikaloa would have had better shoulders.

Quoted message said:

Where you camping each night on Mauna Kea? I didn't see any campgrounds.

No. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of camping alternatives. It is
explicitly disallowed at Mauna Kea State Recreation area due to feral
pigs. The state park has cabins but they were officially could only
be reserved for weekends. Also, the water was not potable. (I'm not
sure but think the same water system was in place when I stayed in
cabins in 1997 - but they had a state inspection in mean time and
didn't have $ to upgrade the water system).

So, in general it would be tough for someone to stay in the cabins.
However, we had a local connection that enabled us to stay in a staff
cabin at Mauna Kea state park.

Quoted message said:

Was that "Winding Road, Next 41 Miles" taken on Saddle Road, I vaguely remember
seeing it?

The sign is right at the turnoff to the Saddle road from the Kona
side.

It is a fun place to bicycle, and I'm impressed with people who have
been able to ride it entirely in a day, though I agree with your
perceptions on difficulties of riding the initial gravel section. We
hiked up the road and then down the trail.

--mev, Mike Vermeulen