NEW SITE COMPLETE

That's right. Only a year late. You can find it here:

www.miyake-san.com

New Blog Coming Soon

That's right.

Updates to follow!

Yellow Aster Butte Trail, North Cascades National Park

The Yellow Aster Butte Trail, (pronounced be-yoot) is located far north close to the Washington-Canada border. This hike is famous for it's fall colors so naturally the parking lot was full of cars upon arrival the second day of October.

Despite the overwhelming amount of cars and having to park in a ditch half a mile from the trailhead, we didn't see too many people throughout the hike...probably due to the fact that we were either too fast for the slow people or too slow for the fast people.

About twenty minutes into the hike we realized both of us thought the other person had brought lunch...which was still sitting in the kitchen when we got home ten hours later. Lucky for us there were multitudes of Huckleberry bushes everywhere. Almost all of the red plants in the pictures are berry bushes.

The trail instantly zigzags straight up a mountain before entering a sparse forest. Pretty looking trees are everywhere at this point but hardly a reward after climbing a small mountain. The forest area ends as abruptly as it starts and transforms into this:

Mt. Baker is seen in the background with lunch seen in the foreground. By the end of the hike I never wanted to eat another berry again

This is the strangest wildflower I've ever seen

Continuing the ascent towards the end of the trail

More berries.

This plateau was carved out by glaciers that have since receded. This is 0.25 miles before the end of the hike. Not pictured is the 400 foot mountain still left to climb in that 0.25 miles to reach the end of the trail. The panoramic view from the top is well worth the effort and is pictured at the beginning of this post. The Yellow Aster Butte trail is 7.5 miles round trip and gains 2,550 feet with the peak being at 6,150 feet.

Skyline Divide Trail, North Cascades National Park

The Skyline Divide trail is located off Mt. Baker highway in the middle of nowhere. After two hours of driving through endless mountains, a small sign let us know we were almost there. The trail measures 9 miles round trip and gains 2500 feet. The highest peak sits at 6563 feet.

A brief incline through dense forest brings you to this - the hill from the Sound of Music.

The illustrious Mt. Baker in the distance before becoming covered in clouds the remainder of the hike. The trail winds along the mountain ridge in the background before ascending the peak to the left.

Lupin somewhere high up along the trail

Continuing along the trail. The higher we hiked the shorter the trees became. These are known as Krummholz - trees distorted by continuous heavy winds at elevation. During the winter months snow protects the lower portion of the tree while winds destroy the upper part, giving them the fat bushy appearance.

Lunch. These are Huckleberries and taste a lot better than blueberries.