Hawaii Day 4

Today was packed with hiking, beaches, light house, & star gazing. First we headed to Pololu Valley which had amazing views and then went to Light House Beach which was treacherous to get to, but the rental car made it. We then drove to Waipio Valley where we did a steep hike down to the valley and beach. The hike was a 25% grade for a solid mile, which might not sound like much, but trust me it was disturbingly steep. Then we had to hike 2 more miles to get to the beach. It was breathtaking black sand beach with a beautiful valley surrounded by mountains with a couple of waterfalls. After seeing wild horses and hanging out on the beach we headed back up that steep mountain. I did not think I was going to make it, but we did. We then headed to the highest point in Hawaii called Mauna Kea (13,796 ft.). We did the Star Gazing Program at the observatory at 9,000 ft. It was amazing, but cold at that altitude, but we planned for it and took our fleece jackets and pants. The one picture of the moon Anthony took from looking into the telescope. After seeing an amazing star filled sky when then headed home. The road was dark and winding. After several miles we almost ran over a family of wild boars. They were huge and scared us to death, but luckily no human or pig was hurt.