Hawaii is not particularly famous for its lakes. To be honest, I remember only one — Lake Wai’au. But this one is rather special. At least for the native Hawaiians who consider it a sacred site.
What makes this lake so special? It is the fact that its surface is at an altitude of 3970 meters which makes it an alpine lake. It is very close to the summit of Hawai’i — Mauna Kea (4205 m). Air is thin there and walking not nearly as easy as it is near the sea level.
Lake Wai’au is really very small. Perhaps it should be called a pond instead of lake. Wikipedia says that it is about 100 meters across but I saw much smaller water body, perhaps 60 meters across. It was evident that the water level fluctuates because the surrounding ground was soft and muddy. It is surprising that the lake is so small in spring but the whole summit of Mauna Kea (which means “white mountain” because of its snow cover) was almost free of snow. I guess it was just poor winter there without much precipitation.
Alpine lakes usually have beautifully deep blue color. This one had beautiful color as well but not blue. It was green. I am not sure what is the cause of the coloration. Perhaps algae or bacteria. There is lots of solar radiation for these photosynthetic living forms but they also generally prefer warmer water. What ever the cause but thin air, blue sky, and green water was a beautiful combination to admire. I hope that the photo below is able to show the beauty of the scene.
You can access the lake after a short walk uphill and then down. Coordinates of the parking lot are 19.810409, -155.46768. Lake is on the other side of the road about 1 km away but it seems farther away because high altitude makes hiking somewhat harder.
Leave a Reply