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Rachel and her co-investigator (and former LPL grad student), Josh, got three nights of time observing on the Keck 2 telescope to observe IR spectra of Europa. The first night was separated from the last two by a few days, so I tagged along as well. I did a little hiking on the Kohala peninsula, and otherwise enjoyed the Keck facility in the town of Waimea, where we stayed.
On the first afternoon, I just drove up and around the peninsula,
kind of scouting where I might go. My target for the following day
was the Pololu Valley, which has a nice overlook that I took a few
pictures from.
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On my way back to Waimea I drove on the road that climbed up and over
the spine of the Kohala peninsula. There were some nice little cones
on top, and a beautiful view of the Kona coast from up there.
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The next day I hiked down the very nice trail into the Pololu
valley. These pictures are looking roughly south from the trail
that comes down the northern side of the valley.
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I decided to hike up out on the south side of the valley and see
what was over the next hill. I was rewarded with another valley
and beautiful scenery. I took some pictures and ate my lunch, as
well as taking a few self-portraits with my new mini-tripod.
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The trail kept going, but I was at about the halfway mark with my
water, so I decided to head back. As I was passing back through
the Pololu valley I took this picture looking out at the sea.
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The next day was a little rainy, so I just worked all day. However,
the day after that, Rachel and I managed to head down to the Hapuna
Beach Park and hang out on the ocean. However, we didn't stay long.
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The day after that, Josh, Rachel, and I drove down to Volcano, hoping to
see some active lava. However, Chain of Craters road was closed because
the lava was advancing to the west and they had to move the turn-around.
So we hiked out to Pu'u Huluhulu which has a nice overlook of a little
shield volcano, and has some nice lava trees along the way.
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The day after our trip to Volcano, Rachel and I were scheduled to visit the summit for the day, but a weather front had come in and was dumping snow and ice on the summit and roads, so we didn't go. The next night was supposed to be their second observing night, but the bad weather had left a thick layer of ice on the dome, and so they didn't open.
The day after that, I visited the Waipio valley, which is the
southernmost of the Kohala rain-carved valleys, and hiked down
the very steep road into the valley. I found some pretty waterfalls
down there, but couldn't quite figure out how to get to them without
crossing private property.
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That day was their last night of observing, and when I got
back to Waimea from my morning hike, I snapped some pictures
of the Mauna Kea from outside our dorms at Keck facility. You
can see the snow at the summit around the telescopes, but it
looks clear.
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That night Rachel and Josh really went to town and made the most
of their third (really second) night. And I got some pictures of
them "in action." I especially like the picture of the summit
on the wall where you can see a white arrow pointing to a dome.
It says "You are observing here."
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On our last day on the island, we were scheduled to leave on a 10:30pm flight, but we had heard that the Chain of Craters road had been opened. So after observing all night, Rachel woke me up, and I drove the two hours to Volcano while she slept. We drove down the road to the new parking turn-around and ranger station which had been moved to the Holei sea arch, and hiked out to the lava.
The lava had crossed the road and was making it's way into the sea
there. You can see the plume of steam behind Rachel that indicates
the sea entry, but we couldn't get any closer.
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These shots are looking back up at the pali, and at a heap of fresh lava
and a park ranger or HVO guy for scale.
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Here are pictures of the road burning from the intense heat of the lava.
It is important to note that this lava had probably been sitting there
for many hours, we did not see it move.
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Here are some more shots looking back up at the pali.
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All in all, we had a great trip. Who says you can't mix business with pleasure?
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