Lake Waiau

I took this photo of Lake Waiau, located in a cinder cone on Mauna Kea. The lake is 13,020 feet up - 8th highest lake in the US, 37th in the world. Grass and small plants are sometimes found around it, but the rest of the mountain is very dry, and few plants are found beyond 11,000 feet above sea level.

In the summer of 2012, dry weather caused the lake to be much smaller and shallower than in years past; it's easy to tell in this photo how much larger it used to be.