What a day. I had wanted one more hike in the high country before the winter set in. Today we decided to head up the Mount Baker hwy and do the Chain lakes loop. What a sky on our way up.
Be prepared this blog post has a plethora of photos. I couldn't decide which ones to leave out, so I put most of them in. After all this is my "high country hiking season end post". The majesty of the area should be shared and savored.
We parked at the parking area right at the closed gate and walked up the road to the Wild Goose trail. When we left our house at 7:30 am, it was 33 degrees outside, but when we got to the parking lot it was 42 degrees. Crazy, it warmed up the higher we drove. There was a slight breeze that kept the air a bit chilly for the beginning of our hike.
Lots of Blueberries still on the bushes.
The clouds did clear for awhile and we enjoyed the sunshine and the blue sky.
We made it to the Artist point parking lot, and where we would connect with the Chain lakes trail. The parking lot is empty since the gate is closed below. A view of the bathroom and Shuksan in the distance.
As we came around the corner we had wonderful views of Mount Baker.
We stopped here for a quick snack and enjoyed the views before heading down to the lakes. We put our Yaktraks on for the walk down the hill. There were a few crusty/icey places through this area, the Yaktraks were perfect. We had no trouble with our footing and took them off after we were through that patch.
Another view of Shuksan.
Iceberg lake
We found a sunny spot out of the wind for our lunch near the second lake. It was nice to relax with the warmth of the sun while we ate.
Then it was up to Herman Saddle and the endless spectacular views.
Then it was down to Bagley lakes.
We walked past this bridge and decided to cross at the next one.
As you can see the fall colors were amazing. We pretty much had the trail to ourselves. We saw one couple as we were leaving the lakes. We saw a friend of our at Herman Saddle and a handful of tourists from China down by Bagley lakes, for some reason one of the women wanted her friend to take a picture of us with her. I don't know why, maybe they thought we were mountain climbers. Who knows?! They were very friendly, we enjoyed visiting with them.
The day was just what I needed, that last taste of Alpine.
Garmin stats:
total miles hiked - 8 miles
total ascent - 2031 feet
