Welcome to Hawaii; let's have a snowball fight
The volcanoes of the Big Island are already showing winter white; Colorado mountains must be so jealous.
Who hasn’t been snowed on during their Hawaii vacation?
Me!
During my 10 trips to Hawaii, I was too smart to roam the big peaks in winter when heavy weather was forecast. After all, I once saw snow down to 6,000 feet when I was looking up from sea level on the Kona Coast of the Big Island.
The island’s two biggest volcanoes rise above 13,000 feet, so that was nearly 8,000 feet of snow. Looks like Hawaii’s biggest volcanoes have more snow up there right now (see following tweet) than at Colorado ski resorts — at least the natural kind of snow.
I used to try to hike to the summits when I visited Hawaii — three times up Mauna Loa and twice up Mauna Kea.
Eventually I gave it up because of the hassles of trying to find a place to sleep up there near my vehicle, what with the needed time to acclimatize. Everywhere is pretty much illegal and once in awhile I would get chased away.
And why sleep in a rental car or tent at 10,000 feet when you’re paying for a condo at sea level?
Besides, once you’ve seen one lava field you’ve pretty much seen them all.🌋 At least that was how I justified quitting on my fourth try up Mauna Lao and heading down to Hapuna Beach.
The summit experiences are both surreal. For Mauna Kea (13,803 feet), you can walk at night from the visitor center up the road, see daybreak, then arrive at the astronomical observatories, before plunging quickly down the trail in the daylight and driving to the beach.
For Mauna Loa (13,679 feet), you pretty much need daylight to follow the spray paint markings, posts and cairns to an amazing summit view: a sprawling volcanic caldera with 4.5 square miles above 13,000 feet.