Days 115 and 116 - North Cascades Mount Baker

After a relaxing morning of coffee and TV in bed, followed by a nice breakfast, I drove Bill and Roman to the airport and drove north toward the North Cascades mountains.

I took care of a few chores in Seattle before leaving the city: food resupply at Costco, oil change and brake check. My first stop in the North Cascades was the Mount Baker area. I had seen Mount Baker, the white sentinel, from way back in Vancouver and was excited to see it up close. But I didn't have time today... Instead I saw the lake and settled in to a campground to convert the van back to a camper and get organized.

I woke up the next morning feeling a bit lazy. I drove around the lake for an hour taking in the various viewpoints and then found a shady spot to take a midday nap. Finally motivated to hike at 4pm, I drove up a winding dirt road to Mount Baker. The hike up to Park Butte was pretty, going through an alpine meadow and then steeply up a dense forest.

I had low expectations for this hike but they were blown away once I turned up the Railroad Grade trail towards a climbers camp near one of Baker's glaciers. The trail went up a narrow ridgeline, constantly charging up closer to Baker. And what views!!

Mount Baker on the right. Happy hiker on the left:)

Panarama looking out over the Cascades. I think I saw Mount Rainier 75 miles away.

As I continued to climb, the views got even better. This range, curled blue above the green forest trees, caught my eye.

And then, at the very top, just below the climber camp, while looking west, I saw the ocean and islands-- maybe Vancouver. Epic!

The North Cascades are vast and beautiful; this sunbathing marmot (on the rock) agreed.

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Day 43 - Capitol Reef

Capitol Reef, a national park centered around a 90 mile ancient seabed reef was next on my list. A sensationally scenic three hour drive from Bryce, back through Escalante, and then through a national forest led me to the park. A stop by the visitor center to get the lay of the land and insider info on local free BLM campsites complete, I set out on Chimney Rock trail up the the top of the first reef to get a view. Yes sir!! The weather was ideal for hiking and the views completely blissful, but I was frankly tired today. I set out along the scenic road down the west side of the reef and remember wanting to take a nap-- but still having a sense of urgency to complete the desert portion of my trip-- I pushed on and set out to hike down the Capitol Gorge and Grand Wash canyons. The Capitol Gorge had a "Pioneer Wall" with inscriptions from the early 1900s and the Grand Wash had a nice narrow section with towering canyon cliffs all around. I took a photo of the surrounding reef...

Day 35 - Escalante River

Our group of eight intrepid but novice backpackers and two incredibly experienced guides gathered for breakfast at 8am to meet, greet and bulk up for 5 days in the Escalante River area. We laid out all our gear to ensure we had the needed hiking, camping and survival supplies and drove to our trailhead for departure. We hiked along a trail following the course of the Escalante River for a mile or so before getting to our first of many river crossings. Wet feet were not something we could avoid so we simply hiked across and sometimes down the river. When the river ran close to the canyon walls we knew we would have to find a shallow entry to the river, then cross the river to the bench on the other side. Guides Andrew Skurka and Alan Dixon offered instruction along the way on map reading and route finding and information on local vegetation and geology and how the knowledge of both helped make your off trail travel more efficient. For example in geology their were two main ro...

Day 54 - Great Sand Dunes

I awoke to clear skies, a dry mattress and pillows, a second hot shower and a waffle-filled motel breakfast. I decided to head east to Great Sand Dunes National Park in order to climb 700 foot sand dunes surrounded by snow-covered alpine mountains--a rare site. Just about every road in Colorado goes over a pretty high mountain pass eventually, and this three and a half hour journey didn't disappoint. And Great Sand Dunes didn't disappoint either. After securing a dune-side campsite and waiting out a rainstorm, I set out to climb the dunes for a sunset view. Great Sand Dunes is also famous for its Medano Creek wave-like flow and ankle-deep water, making it popular with young kids. I hiked through it and started climbing the dunes, first to a high dune on the east side and over to the next highest dune and then the next highest et until I got to the highest one-/ properly called High Dune. I sat down, setup my phone to capture a time-lapse of the beautiful sunset my eyes were ...

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