Kelly and Alan invited us to go backpacking with them in the Cascades, and since we'd been having a lot of hot weather here, that sounded like a great idea. The plan was to hike up to the top of Miller Peak outside of Cle Elum on the Eastern side of the mountains. The hike was relatively short but steep, gaining 3,200 ft in four miles. We had great weather on the way up, and camped just below the summit. It was a great place to watch the sunset, and the full moon rising behind us. We'd hoped for a nice sunrise as well, but when we woke up, we were in a cloud and couldn't see much of anything. On the hike down, we descended out of the clouds to better views again.
Alan and Kelly taking some time to enjoy the view.
|
Brooke, Kelly, and Alan making their way up.
|
Brooke getting some nice pictures of the view.
|
And Alan cheking out the view as well.
|
Looking up towards the summit.
|
Brooke and Kelly making their way up the ridge. Almost there...
|
I thought this dead tree was interesting looking.
|
At the top, and time for some food before we set up camp.
|
Kelly and Alan checking out the pictures they just took.
|
Our camp just below the summit. We had to squeeze the tents into what little bit of almost level ground we could find.
|
Brooke and Kelly making dinner.
|
Kelly being goofy for the camera.
|
The sun setting behind Navajo Peak. Mt. Stuart is peaking out from behind Navajo Peak, and Colchuck is to the right of that.
|
Kelly scooping up some snow to melt for water.
|
Looks like Brooke is getting some nice sunset pictures.
|
It was a bit hazy, making it hard to get clear pictures of distant peaks, but if you look closely you can see Mt. Rainier peaking out above the clouds.
|
The mountain ninja stopped in for a visit...
|
The full moon rose behind us as the sun was setting.
|
Sunset and Navajo Peak, Mt. Stuart, and Colchuck Peak again.
|
A closer view a little bit later.
|
Sunday morning we woke up in a cloud. No sunrise view today...
|
A yellow Glacier Lily along the trail.
|
As we made our way down, we emerged from the clouds and started to get our view back.
|
There was a lot of Trillium along the trail near the creeks down lower.
|
There were also a lot of trees with white flowers near the creeks.
|
More Trillium.
|
A fern uncurling itself.
|
We saw some Indian Paintbrush as well.
|
