From Beach to Blizzard

We spent Monday morning hiking on White Road through the Kohala Forest Preserve. It was overcast, rainy, and foggy but still a beautiful walk through the rain forest. The overlook spot at the end of the road was fogged in but we still had a great hike! Later that evening Doug, Jim, and I went to the top of Mauna Kea. We stopped at the visitor center, which is at 9,200 feet, and star gazed at the crystal clear sky (with a whopping 6,000 stars in the sky on the moonless night). Telescopes were set to Saturn, galaxys, and star groups. Scientists also gave presenations about constilations and used high powered lazer pointers to point to the stars. After acclimating to the elevation, we made the climb to the summit of Mauna Kea at 13,796 feet. The only things at the top of the mountain are two dozen telescopes (where the air is so clear that scientists can view objects over 12 billion light years away), lots of snow, and an eerie calmness. The night that we went to the summit a snow storm came blowing through and we decided to stay just long enough to pack the back of our pickup truck with snow and make it down the mountain before getting frostbite! :) We then had a blast making a snowman in Doug and Stephanie's front yard and throwing a few snowballs around!