I always build time into my hike for a moment of self reflections. Being so high in the mountains, where the air is thin, and views stretch for miles, offers one a wonderful opportunity for slowing down, and evaluating not only oneself, but the life around them. Whether it be spending the moment to take in the scenery and admire nature, or to introspect about your part in the wider community, the moment of zen is critical to appreciating the reason to get outdoors. Even if you are with friends, it pays to take time off to de-stress in nature
Here was a group doing this high in the Cascades.
North Cascades National Park
WA USA
Camping on the edge
Would you want to camp here?
There are some gnarly campsites in the North Cascades with jaw dropping views. And then there is Sahale Arm. Getting to the campsites here involve a 4400ft (1300m) climb from deep in the valley below up steep hiking trails ending in a glacial moraine with precipitous dropoffs. And even in this unforgiving terrain are scattered campsites with panoramic birds-eye view of the Cascades.
I can't wait to return to the high country once again.
North Cascades National Park
WA USA
Last of Summer
The trail kept climbing on. Along a narrow tree-lined cliff, up a steep grassy ridge, and onto a rocky scree at the lip of a receding glacier a couple of thousand feet above. It was not a sprint; it was a long marathon. I would have given up were it not for the jaw-dropping mountainscape opening up the more I climbed.
It was late afternoon by the time I got to the glacier. Endless vistas of jagged peaks stretched into the blue horizon. The stalwarts of the North Cascades - Mt Baker, Mt Rainier, and Glacier Peak, all made their exalted appearance. It was landscape that made me wish I could spend the night amidst the mountains so close to the stars. But what goes up must come down.
This was taken on the way down, just as the sun was starting to disappear behind the jagged edge, highlighting the fall landscape in the high sub-alpine terrain of the North Cascades
North Cascades National Park
WA USA