![\"tallest](\"https:\/\/lawrencecconnolly.com\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/tallest-mountains-2-cropped-2.jpg\")
<\/a>It was a dull gray landscape, and as I gradually deciphered the details of it I realized that it represented a long and enormously high line of cliffs exactly like an immense cataract seen in the distance, with a sloping, tree-clad plain in the foreground.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nThat’s George Edward Challenger describing the Amazonian plateau in Arthur Conan Doyle’s\u00a0The Lost World<\/a><\/em>, and it’s a description that came to mind when I got my first look at Mauna Kea — the tallest mountain in Hawaii and (arguably) in the world.<\/p>\n My\u00a0photo above shows Mauna Kea in the foreground with\u00a0Hawaii’s second tallest peak,\u00a0Mauna Loa, in the distance behind it.<\/p>\n Towering over 13,000 feet above sea level, the peaks are nearly half as tall as Mount Everest, but if measured from the ocean floor (the true base of each of these volcanic mountains), they measure over 33,000 feet, making them the tallest mountains on the planet.<\/p>\n In fiction, facts are the springboard for possibility.<\/p>\n The isolated summit of a high\u00a0mountain also plays a role in my current project, the book-length expansion of the\u00a0“Daughters of Prime” stories. In those stories, an exploratory mission establishes an observation post on a high cliff only to discover that the site is revered as sacred by the creatures of the valley.<\/p>\n Coincidentally, travel writer Brandon Wilson<\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0informed me of an ongoing conflict between an observatory atop\u00a0Mount Kea and some island residents who feel that the presence of a science\u00a0installation violates the sacredness of the mountain. You can read more about that controversy\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Once again, the road between fact and fiction runs both ways.<\/p>\n Along the way, I’ve also been commenting on the works of\u00a0Arthur Conan Doyle and\u00a0the new book\u00a0Professor Challenger: New Worlds, Lost Places<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>— a\u00a0book that I just happened to be reading during my travels. (Coincidence? You decide.)<\/p>\n For the next installment, we\u2019ll travel through some rainforests and consider an eco-friendly way\u00a0to avoid getting tangled in\u00a0dense undergrowth. No machetes needed.<\/p>\n Until then . . . scop on!<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>In comparison, the real-world mountain that inspired Doyle’s The Lost World\u00a0<\/em>(Mount Roraima in eastern Venezuela, above right), measures a little over 9,000 feet, but the wonder of it\u00a0has less to do with height than the\u00a0grandeur of its vertical cliffs and the possibilities of what might lie hidden\u00a0in such a remote location.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>This post is part three\u00a0of a series of thoughts that come to mind\u00a0as I sort through photographs and notes from my research trip to the Hawaiian Islands. You can find the first two posts\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n