Photos taken along the Mauna Loa trail

Follow along with the Mauna Loa trail guide by Lisa Petersen!

Mauna Loa as seen from Mauna Kea

Mauna Loa trail, start to Red Hill

• For the first three miles past the end of Mauna Loa strip road there's actually some vegetation
• The ``last Ohia tree'', a very singular specimen, has a great view of Halemaumau in the far distance

Mauna Loa trail, Red Hill to North Pit entrance

• No vegetation any more, but there is still color!
• A small but dramatic spatter cone
• In 1991, the ``unnamed reddish-brown prehistoric spatter cone'' stuck up out of 1984 lava
• Compare the 1991 photo with this 1975 photo courtesy Dan Vasicek
• The vicinity of the ``red and black spatter cones of the 1800 eruption''
• The ``Dewey Cone sign'' (I briefly managed to catch up with my hiking partners here!)
• ``The trail lies on red spatter... and then drops down several feet to blackish pahoehoe''
• ``The olive-green pumice fragments deposited on the pahoehoe were formed during the eruption of Steaming Cone'' (in 1855)
• ``Pohaku Hanalei is a prehistoric spatter cone that was cut parallel to the rift by a 1984 fissure''
• Pohaku Hanalei receding behind us
• In some places the passage of many feet sweeps the trail clear
• Entering North Pit, which is covered with 1984 lava (photo taken in 1994)
• Compare the 1994 photo with this 1975 photo courtesy Dan Vasicek
• The edge of the 1984 lava in North Pit

Cabin trail

• In North Pit
• ``Lua Poholo, a pit crater more than 200 feet deep''
• The long climb up out of North pit
• The top of Mauna Loa: Moku`aweoweo caldera. The red lava is 1949 `a`a, the black pahoehoe is from 1984
• Looking from the cabin across to the summit of Mauna Loa
• The 1940 and 1949 cones inside the caldera
• The rather memorable (and somewhat scary) Mauna Loa cabin outhouse

Observatory trail

• Near the end of the trail, the Mauna Loa weather observatory comes into view, looking like a scene from some science-fiction movie

Whew! A long long trudge up and down the mountain, but worth it. I did the hike twice, first in July 1991 to see the total eclipse (that time I got too altitude sick and didn't make it to the top), and then again in July 1994 (that time I managed to make it to the top). The gentle curvature of the mountain means much of the time you can only see a few miles ahead and behind. Near the top you can't even see the ocean... it's below the horizon. Hiking Mauna Loa feels like circumnavigating a small asteroid.

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