We drove back up to the Jackson Visitor Center yesterday to hike the Skyline Trail. Knew it would be a bit tough, but it is so beautiful! The loop trail starts at the visitor center and does a 5 1/2 mile loop...with an elevation gain of 1700 feet. The left "side" of the loop is very steep and I would use poles and think twice if you have bad knees.
Once again, a picture perfect day! So exciting to get up there and turn away from the mountain to see Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens all in one lovely panoramic view!!
On our way up to the visitor center we stopped at one of the Reflection Lakes:
Off we go on the trail:
There were lots of marmots out enjoying the morning sun:)
Above the meadows we had to step stone across a couple of small streams:
And we had to cross a few patches of snow like the people in the pic below. If you look at the horizon you can see white capped Mt. Adams on the left, just to the left of center a very small, faint, white triangle is Mt. Hood and on the far right with very little snow is Mt. St. Helens.
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| Mt. Adams |
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| Mt. Hood |
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| Mt. St. Helens |
Here we are at the highest point on this trail, 7100 ft. While we were eating our lunch here we heard a rumbling that lasted for a while! We could not see anything sliding or falling but were told it was probably either a rock fall or a glacial shifting which are very hard to spot.
You could go higher as these folks are doing:
Mike hugging the rock wall for some shade:
Back down through the meadows. What a day!
What a magnificent hike! I want to go there so bad! The flowers are awesome and the VIEWS!!! WOW! That must have been kinda of freaky when you heard the rumble!
ReplyDeleteLisa I think we were too busy looking for the source of the rumble to be freaked out by it;) It would sure make me think twice about walking across the glaciers though!!
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