Mana Rd

No, this has nothing to do with our new friend Mana.......:) Although I think anyone would like a road named after them......

Mana Rd is a 44 mile stretch of rugged state road that starts in Waimea and winds around the north side of Mauna Kea ending up on Mauna Kea Road only 12 miles from the 13,700+ft summit.
On Saturday, from the initial altitude of about 2500ft in Waimea we drove the entire length of Mana Rd ending up at an altitude of about 7000ft. At the end of the day we drove to Mau'umae Beach (at sea level of course) and we saw the water bottles we carried in the car constrict from the increased air pressure...kinda like what they do on a plane...

The Waimea end of Mana Rd is lush and green; most of the land, on both sides of the road and as far as the eye can see, is Parker Ranch land; pastures of wavy grasses and grazing cattle. The road starts out paved but once you're a mile off the main highway it's dirt until the other end.
Immediately after leaving the highway, Christopher got out his iPhone and opened the GPS app. to pinpoint where we were. He saw, only a short bit from us, a street called Wong Way. How could we not take a look?

A turn from Mana Rd onto Mana Place took us into a little neighborhood that was bordered with tall pines and the well kept ranch houses were each set on a few acres of land; some with small fenced pastures of sheep and others with horses. Right at the intersection of Mana Place and Wong Way was a farm with a greenhouse and a field of alternating ruby and emerald greens and lettuces waiting to be picked for the table. However, probably fearing tourists and even local gawkers out for a thrill, the street sign for Wong Way was not there...a little disappointing in that respect but otherwise a really pretty little spot.




Once you leave this tight little neighborhood and venture only a little further on Mana Rd you enter the Parker Ranch land and, even though this is a state road, farm gates and cattle grates intersect the road; there were frequent stops to open and close the gates so we could venture on...
On our first little stop to stretch our legs we took in Waimea's sunny skies (this was my sixth time to Waimea and still no rain.....) and searched for some mushrooms (they grow in cow pies)...that's Ira to the right with his nose to the ground...
I guess because it had been so sunny, there were no shrooms to be had....kinda sad...
Waimea, for all of it's supposed rain, was the sunniest part of today's road trip.

Even though both ends of the road could be driven in a regular vehicle (we were even passed by a mini van at one point) the guide books recommend a 4 wheel drive for the trip and only after we were well into the journey did I see why. On the center section of the road a 4 wheel drive (ie. the demon) is certainly required. Although the road is not as rough as the lava rock moguls that we traveled on previous days, there were some steep and heavily rutted areas that didn't look like a road at all....just farmland tracks that even tractors may have a hard time getting through.
Needless to say, I didn't get photos of these areas as I was hanging on...




For the better part of the journey we were in a fog bank so the views, other then cattle in the mist and the gnarly, lichen covered koa trees, were pretty much nonexistent. Although we did come upon a pair of Nene-Hawaii's endangered state bird.



























Once we got through the roughest portion of the road we took a road-side lunch break under one of those koa trees where the cool (almost cold) breeze forced even us New Yorkers, to put on sweatshirts.

There is so little "traffic" on this road that during our hour-long lunch stop...homemade spam musubi (woohoo!) and roadside huli huli chicken and beer...we only saw two people on mountain bikes (What in the hell where they thinking?!), a guy on a dirt bike and another on a 4 wheel ATV.





After lunch, the even dirt road winds through parts of state park as well as private lands some of which are overtaken with an invasive plant called gorse..a spiny, evergreen shrub that can get 6 ft tall. It was introduced to the island as an ornamental plant, it eventually naturalized and has taken over acres of land. Kinda pretty with it's yellow flowers but very thorny. It's probably great cover for wildlife..we even saw a very large bull duck into it as we drove past.
This is a photo that I pilfered from the interwebs...I have no idea who these people are but it shows you the scale of the plants and intensity of their invasiveness (that's I word I just made up, I like it!)....



Before the final exit onto Mauna Kea Rd, our Mana Rd journey ended with a trip through...The Valley of the Dong...as Makoto and Ira like to call it. I have no idea what these plants are but their now spent and dried flower spikes guard the landscape.






After another long day in the demon...where it was a titch chilly and damp on that mountain...we decided to end our day at Mau'umae Beach where Christopher practiced his sand etching and we watched the sun set........