There was a guy leaning against the stone wall of the Jagger Museum. He was in the shadows sharing miscellaneous facts and telling stories about the Halema‘uma‘u eruption. He talked about the weather. He talked about Rim Road being closed. And at some point, he mentioned Mauna Kea.
We mentioned that we had just been there, and he mentioned the magnificent view of Mauna Loa that you get when you’re on Mauna Kea.
When he said that, Trudy and I mentioned that we hadn’t noticed, and you could see from his reaction that he thought something was wrong. He mentioned something about how Mauna Kea is usually above the clouds and not socked in at which point I stopped talking about our ascent, because it had been above the clouds, and it was not socked in, and neither of us saw Mauna Loa. …um to the best of our recollection.
Were we clueless!? How was it that we were up there above the clouds with nothing but clear, blue sky all around us, and we didn’t see Mauna Loa?
I’m sure the guy thought we were blowing smoke. And we were kind of ashamed… and baffled. So when we got home, we took a closer look at our photos to see if the cameras saw what we clearly didn’t.
And so here it is. I submit this as evidence that we really were there, as you can see from the dark slope of Mauna Kea in the foreground, and as evidence that we were indeed above the clouds as you can tell from …well, the clouds. And I submit this as evidence that Mauna Loa was barely visible.
As you can see, it’s not obvious what that dark thing is in the distance. Is it? I mean, you see what I’m saying, right?
And what a sight it was, now that we look back at it. A magnificent view!