Healy-Guttman Blog

In the shadow of Mauna Kea, Mana Road winds it’s way 45 miles from the southeastern flank near Saddle Road around 6500′ in elevation to it’s northern face in Waimea.  In the 1800’s, this was a cattle trail on the Parker Ranch.  There are still a lot of cattle along with Koa tree forests, ponds full of Nene geese, a beautiful wildlife refuge and amazing scenery.

  The Mauna Kea back country has fascinated me since I road on the infamous “R-1″ last year on Dusty. (Click here for that story ). I loved the elevation, diverse landscape, wildlife and openess - not to mention that you can go for hours without seeing another human being (hard to believe in Hawaii).  No gas stations, fast food outlets, shops - just pure Hawaiian country!

I decided to start at Saddle Road and wind my way around to Waimea.  I wasn’t exactly sure where the road started, but was told that it was the first right off the Mauna Kea observatory access road.  This is the beginning of the ride from this side:

…however, I have to admit being a little put off by this sign:

 

I thought about it for a few seconds, then hit Dusty’s “go button” and headed down the road:

The day was perfect!  …and the road was pretty decent during the first ten miles - at least 2nd gear and about 20 mph.  I stopped many times to snap photos of such beautiful landscape like this gully:

or this old knarled Koa tree:

or the hills covered with blooming yellow Scotch broom with Mauna Kea’s snow covered peak in the background:

Then there was a friendly bull who was as scared of me as I was of him:

…and of course the obligatory photo of Dusty:

About 15 miles in I hit the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge. This is an extremely remote 7000+ acre refuge that few locals ever see. …and I guess I’m going to have to wait to see it too - it is only open on weekends and Holidays (this was a Friday)… On the bright side, this is a great excuse to go back!

There are huge Koa and Ohia forests in this refuge providing habitat for some rare and endangered bird species.  …that includes the Nene Goose (Hawaii’s State bird) which surprised me as I saw a lot of them:

From the refuge, the road started to change:

The road soon became a “1st gear road” and eventually near a ranger station and the first gate I came to, it was just a dirt road that was significantly rutted and definately 4wd only (or 1wd in Dusty’s case..).  After this section, I came to the first gate:

 

There are 4 gates between the ranger station and Waimea and a sign will request that you close them behind you.  Behind the first gate was a victim of the wilderness:

Give it a few more months and this Mana Road casualty will be nothing but a pile of rust…

The road now started to descend and I was getting well past the halfway point, so one more Kodak moment for Dusty: 

I wound my way through a few more miles and a few more gates.  Eventually the landscape turned to lush grazing land and I saw the first people I had seen in 3 hours - two ranch hands taking a lunch break.  Sights now included old ranch buildings and roundup corrals.  After the last gate, the road turned to cinder and improved considerably:

At this point I was hitting 3rd gear and the last 10 miles I was cruising along at 4o mph.  ….with the exception of about 4 stops for bewildered cattle that seemed to wait until I was within 50′ before finally waking up and scattering off the road…  Here is one guarding the summit (photo by Pete Orelup):

…and I crossed a lot of these cattle guards:

…yeah, that’s another Pete Orelup photo as my photographic “skills” are pretty limited…

When I got to Waimea, I was completely turned around and added about 10 miles to my trip cruising up and down every rural road in that part of Hawaii until I finally made it to the main road.  It was a fortunate series of mistakes as I saw a completely different side of this Big Island. 

I will be heading back to our “other island” on the mainland in a few days, so Dusty will be put away for a few months.  I look forward to coming back to Mana Road and visiting the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge (during a weekend this time), and hopefully spend more time exploring the Waimea valley.  That is one thing I love about the Big Island - always something new to see and explore.