Mauna Kea and kids

[Boggy B]

Posting with reference to this older thread to comment on the state of things on Mauna Kea in our experience on July 24.

Plan was for me to hike the Humuula trail from the visitor center and Kylie to drive up with our 3 y/o to hang out together on the summit. We rented a 4Runner for the day (via Turo) to make sure we wouldn't have any issues since I'd read the rangers are a tad overzealous in requiring true 4WD to drive up.

For us problems started at the visitor center as soon as the ranger noticed our kid in the back seat. He first said they don't recommend bringing little ones to the summit, then when we didn't seem too concerned laid into us about how we'd be endangering his life, and if we decided to proceed despite the warning, they would take down our information and if our boy came down the mountain unconscious would report us for child endangerment. (No mention of rendering assistance.) They don't have any enforcement authority on this point, though he said "if we could stop you, we would." Seeing as we were not persuaded by ratcheting threats, the senior ranger decided to have a go. Among other nonsense he said any prior acclimatization is null after 24 hours at sea level regardless what elevation you live at, that less than half the people who attempt the hike make it to the top, that the majority of people who need to be rescued (not sure what that means as there are no emergency services on the peak but many drivers who seem more than happy to give you a lift) are from Colorado, and that it's prohibited to visit the true summit. Oh and p.s. the trail is closed due to sheep harvesting heli operations, so I'd have to walk the 8.6 mile summit road instead. They laid it on so thick I was starting to question reality, but after thirty minutes of their talking down we decided to stick to our original plan.

Once I was a couple hundred feet up road the commandos refused to let Kylie pass the barricade until the 4Runner was in 4 Lo (still on pavement) and would not assist despite that all the patrol vehicles are also 4Runners; thankfully we had good cell service all the way up. On ascent the locals driving past threw smiles and shakas and the rangers stared daggers. I made the top in 2:40 and couldn't have been happier to be done with it. The true summit is a few feet higher and a short ways off the road, and though it is not off-limits, there is a sign next to the obvious trail stating it is discouraged due to its spiritual significance to native Hawaiians. The trail was freshly coned off, and at any rate I felt quite unwelcome and didn't bother going over there.

Mauna Kea was an afterthought on this trip and would have been a forgettable experience if not for the drama. It was fun for the kiddo to see the big telescopes though. I didn't want to spend a whole day solo else I'd have gone for Mauna Loa instead.

If you're not bringing children under 13 and are just wanting to hike from the visitor center, you may not have problems, but lie if they ask where you're coming from. If you want to drive beyond there you will need a 4WD to get past the rangers. I did see at least one AWD going up but it was probably staff. Further research indicates the University of Hawaii and its ranger program are being given increasing authority to manage operations of the Mauna Kea summit highway, so things may become more difficult in the future.

[Jon Frohlich]

We hiked it while my wife was 4 months pregnant. I'm sure if we had told the ranger she was pregnant he would have threatened to call the cops or tried to stop us somehow. He still tried to threaten us and tell us how dangerous the mountain was even though we told him we were from Colorado and did this all the time.

Unfortunately she intended to tell him when we got back that she was pregnant just to annoy him further but we forgot. He was still pissed that we sauntered down and got back to the visitors center fairly early in the afternoon without incident.

Mauna Loa was a physical beating due to the terrain but at least there are no ranger hassles.

[Briere]

We went last spring and was in a Crosstrek Sport and faced decent push back from the welcome center about driving up since it wasn't true 4WD but they let us threw. We had no issue with the vehicle going up or down; just took our time going down to not over heat the breaks.

We saw the same thing with the true summit and also didn't bother going to the summit since we had mostly drove up anyways.

[michaelgrundy]

I climbed it 2 years ago in the summer while on a family vacation. I did it in the style of Longs Peak and slept for a few hrs at the visitor center and then left for the summit at 2 am. Caught sunrise on the summit and descended back down to the visitors center late in the morning. I honestly didn't see a single ranger but hearing these stories is making me glad I didn't bump into anyone.

[12ersRule]

Not sure why all of the sudden the true summit is 'sacred' when the rest of the peak is crawling with signs of haole. It's not like the Hawaiians lived up at the summit.

Lets shut down the summits of Humphreys, Blanca, Taylor, and Huerfano too since those are sacred to the Navajo.

[BKS]

Our experience was similar 4 years ago. Mentioning that you live in Colorado is the wrong thing to do. That prompted the speech about most of the people that have problems are from there. I did go ahead and hike to true summit, against the horror of someone else nearby

[Craig Barlow]

I had an argument with the ranger at the visitor center over the "science" when they forced us to acclimatize for 30 minutes before being allowed to drive up to the top. Then we got yelled at by another ranger at the top when we dared to go over to the true summit. Finally, we got into another confrontation back down at the visitor center when they wanted to measure the temperature of my brakes since they thought I was driving down too fast (despite being in 2nd gear like they told me which is totally reasonable). I had had enough at that point and just drove away as they yelled and shook their fists in my rear view mirror.

It's best to go really early before any of them show up for work for the day.

[Matt]

These stories are wild. We hiked Mauna Kea in 2013 and parked at a shortcut pullout past the visitor center at 10,150'
A ranger came by to ask us what we were up to and gave us a canned safety spiel, but was overall very friendly once he realized were were more than capable.
We saw him again on the true summit and he was kind enough to take some pics of the group for us.
Signs of the times, I suppose, even in the land of Aloha.

[nyker]

Maybe I'm missing something, but I remember a paved road right to the summit. We had zero issue hiking. We drove from town and parked at the trailhead which is like 9,000 ft from what I remember and just hiked up from there on the well marked trail all the way up. I don't even remember seeing anyone at the trailhead or ranger or anyone, much less being threatened or reprimanded. It was one of my more memorable hikes to a magnificent summit which had snow on it in the winter and cool telescopes (did not go inside, but I think you're able to during some times of the year).

[Boggy B]

The road is graded dirt from 9300' to ~11800' and paved again from there to the summit. It's incredibly steep for being so well maintained, such that low gearing or a manual gear selector (not 4WD) are helpful to avoid riding your brakes all the way down. Guessing no different from Pikes or BS.

Probably the increasingly aggressive gatekeeping arises out of the telescope controversy. https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... anagement/

I assume giving control of the summit to native Hawaiians means bad things for access by the general public.

[bdloftin77]

Wow, these are some insane stories. I'm glad I went back in 2018. Didn't have any issues driving up or going to the summit.

[climbingcue]

No kids going with us when we go in November 2024, but thank you for the heads up. We did Rainier this June and the rangers there also said all the problems were from people from Colorado. I looked for the same ranger when we checked out, but he was not working.