On Top of Mauna Kea
The summit of Mauna Kea is the highest point in the Hawai'ian Islands and is home to the largest concentration of telescopes in the world. When you're higher than 14,000 feet elevation, the sky is an amazing deep blue, and the colors in the ash and volcanic rock are incredibly vivid. The summit is totally devoid of any vegetation - since it's higher than the tops of the clouds brought in by the trade winds, it gets little rain and is an alpine desert. Because it's a still active (but not currently erupting) volcano, the top is very much a "moonscape, distinctly more eerie than is Halekala on Maui.
We drove our compact size rental car to the top; we trusted the Big Island Revealed guidebook when Andrew said it could be driven without 4-WD if the road was in good condition. Andrew was right. We did notice that the engine labored heavily on the last legs of the climb. We did this trip in August of 2003.
I was also marginally experiencing altitude sickness at the top. Some of the telescopes require going up a couple of flights of stairs to get to the public viewing area - I had to take frequent rests as we were going up the stairs. I often ski at over 10,000 feet without a problem, and I have a stong cardiopulmonary system, but 14k feet is apparently at the edge of my abilities without acclimation. DW was much less affected than I was.
Every time we drove through one of them, I wanted to take a picture too but my SO didn't want to stop so I never took a picture. I have seen them on other islands too but Maui lost most of the trees that made their tree tunnel road to Kihei. These trees were removed because they needed to widen the road or they may have been deceased, most likely. I don't know what the reason was but what a shame that they are gone.