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| Allen at the summit of Mauna Kea, summit cairn to the left, telescopes to the rear. |
When I first started RVing in 2003 one of my goals was to get to the highest point of each of the 50 states. I joined the Highpointers Club and started climbing. In August 2010 I completed the lower 48 on Granite Peak, Montana. That left Alaska and Hawaii.
At one time I thought I might try the Alaska high point, Denali, but now a few more years have passed, I'm a lot older and no way could I make it. Hawaii, however was a different story; one can drive almost to the top - the biggest problem was getting to the island of Hawaii, and that we did on the cruise ship Star Princess.
We rented a 4 wheel drive truck in Hilo and were on our way.
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| Dinah and our rented truck at the start of the Mauna Kea access road. The mountain, hidden in clouds, is in the background. |
Our guidebook had warned us that the access road, beyond the visitor center, was very steep and in poor condition. The book must be out of date; we found the road to be no problem at all. There were a few miles of dirt road, but it had been recently graded and, other than a little bit of washboard, presented no problems. Of course, if it had been snowing, raining, or icy, it would have been a different story.
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| Dinah, near the top, dressed for the cold wind. |
I left Dinah in the parking lot near the top and set out on foot for the summit, a short hike away. After a few minutes, and lots of huffing and puffing (the summit is 13,796 feet above sea level), I was at the top of Mauna Kea - my last high point!
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| The summit of Mauna Kea, my 49th - and last - state high point. |
