You’re staring at fractured lava rock the entire time. It all would have been worth it if the views were better. However, I know that I’m a bit of an outlier when it comes to altitude so you’re probably unlikely to get the dizziness I got. I was dizzy the whole way and of-course didn’t have as much energy due to the lower oxygen levels. You’re walking over lava flows 95% of the time which are quite possibly the worst surface on earth to try and walk on. I found this to be a death march and not worth it.Ĭompleted in 6:40.

On paper this hike looks difficult but do-able. It started to rain right as I was getting off of the trail.Ĭhallenging hike with nice views of the caldera at the top and Mauna Kea as you ascend. At least when I was there, the weather tended to roll in in the early afternoon. I definitely recommend starting as early as possible. I climbed slowly and steadily, stopped a lot for water, and I was fine. I was back down at the Observatory by 3pm. I sat in the car for about 30 minutes, drank a bottle of water and ate something, and started hiking at 7. Left Kona (sea level) about 5am and drove up to the Observatory, arriving around 6:30.

No issues following trail, you might lose it here and there momentarily but you will always find it again. It’s incredibly unique in terms of landscape. There are areas of loose lava rock, but the first bit is mostly walking on larger, more fixed rocks. A lot are saying this is a “death march”… it is definitely a slog but I found the varying types of rocks / lava / colors pretty interesting. I did this hike on my own and didn’t have any issues with the elevation. It was probably the most memorable experience during our trip to the Big Island! This was a very cool experience - because of the altitude sickness, I don’t know if I would do it again (only after some training I think). Something I didn’t see other reviews mention is that we had cellular service pretty much the entire hike! Definitely a plus if you’re planning on maybe doing this alone. We saw some random bottles of water left on the trail, maybe it’s emergency water for people who need it? Elevation gain really wasn’t too intense, especially at the pace we were going at. We reached the caldera basin and then when we realized that 1) there were still 2 more miles until the summit and 2) dark gray clouds were rolling in, we decided to head back down.

We got lost a few times and needed the downloaded AllTrails to help get us back on track, and ended up just going a lot slower than we expected. Unfortunately, the altitude sickness did get to us - popping a couple of ibuprofen didn’t really seem to help either. The lava formations are really quite awesome, and there’s also color changes along the way. I can see where people are going with the whole “this trail was a death march!!!”, but I didn’t think it was THAT bad. (Later, we’d realize we were the only two people to hike the trail the entire day, except for one other couple!) We arrived to the observatory at 8:30am and sat in the car for just under 30 mins to get adjusted to the elevation. I was so surprised to see that the parking lot at the trailhead was only 4 cars big, and that we were going to be the first car parked there.

Mauno loa hikes