October 04, 2010

Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan

A couple of weeks ago we headed to Bellingham/Fairhaven. It's a good jumping off point to explore Mt. Baker and Artist's Point. Even from Bellingham, it's an hour and a half drive to Artist's Point (cuz you have to stop for coffee, of course). We planned to walk the Chain Lakes Trail until we were satisfied. It was more important to go for a pretty drive on rural roads and get outside than to clock lots of miles.

As we started out on the Chain Links Trail, a large lenticular cloud hung over Mt. Baker. The cloud would remain right there for our whole adventure. But that's what part of makes mountains cool - those lenticular clouds.

Getting closer to the mountain. You can spot a hiker on the trail to show you the scale of the landscape. Really magnificent. You can see how perfect the weather was this day. I peeled off the layers I wore not long after we started walking.
For more scale, you can see S on the trail on our hike back to the car. That is Mt. Shuksan, the other reason for the trip. Between the two peaks
Here is Shuksan from the parking lot. I like the contrast of the dark green trees, the red rock, and the white snow and glaciers. Below is Shuksan from the Picture Lake pullover. There is a paved trailed all the way around and this is the money shot when you drive to Mt. Baker/Artist's Point. It was a bit late in the day (or too early, depending on whether you want morning or early evening light) to avoid some glare. But the flaming reds and oranges were too inticing to ignore snapping a few shots.

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