Picture of the week ~ Big Horn Mountain Sheep

North Fork, Montana

To the top of Church mountain

Sometimes plans and schedules change. 

I skipped last Thursday's trailblazer hike because my husband took a rare day off from work. He works alot of hours and I savor our time together so we played in Skagit county for the day. If you saw my weekend's picture of the week, I was amazed at how early the crops are maturing. Take a peek at that post HERE. 

We've had really warm temps here this spring and our crops are benefiting from it.

We've had a bumper crop of cherries - 

Anyway.....getting back to my beginning topic, we had planned on hiking up Church mountain a couple of weeks ago and schedules changed, so we decided to try again yesterday. It was another warm day, but wow was it spectacular. 

Be forewarned, there will be ALOT of pictures in this post. 

It was too gorgeous not to share them. I was thankful that the first 3 miles and the last 3 miles (yes, it was an out and back hike) were in the forest, so we had lots of shade for those parts of the hike.

The trail head info. says 4.2 miles (one way) to the top, but we did a little side trip to eat part of our lunch before we got to the top, so it ended up being a bit longer for us.

Just as we were coming out of the forest we stopped at the first creek for a rest break.

Then it was into the full meadow.

The photo below is a panorama that includes both Shuksan and Mt. Baker.
Click on it to see it larger.

My pictures don't show them very well, but the wildflowers were everywhere.
It was spectacular walking through them.

We stopped for a bite of our lunches before heading up to the top. It was getting warm and I felt like a fuel replenishing stop aka food :-) sounded good.
Then onward and upward.

One last little rocky trail section just before the top.

27 switchbacks from the trail head and then we were there!

 The views were awesome.
We could even see the San Juan Islands & the Olympics from the top.

Shuksan and Mt. Baker in the distance

Kidney lake below

The photo below is my favorite picture from the day

It's been 30 years since I've hiked to the top of Church mountain, I hope we do it again a little sooner!

Endomondo stats:
Total miles hiked - 9.9 miles
Minimum altitude - 2257 feet
 Maximum altitude - 6086 feet
Total ascent - 4010 feet
Total descent - 4128