Today I am with Steve and Susan, both core members of our BAS hiking group. We are hiking to the summit of Thunder Mountain.
The trail passes along the Ridgeline that has a large number of “snow fences“ the theory is that these will direct the wind currents and snow up keeping it from piling up on the highway below.
The rock formations are awesome to look at. They make me feel so small.
Along one of the upper ridge lines, we find white pines growing in this harsh and somewhat desolate area. It reminds me of the strength God puts in us to persevere as well.
We continue up with more open valley views, and large rock formations rising out the ground
Standing on an open Ridgeline, I have a beautiful view in all directions
The trail continues through more fields of your irregularly shaped lava rock
And another example of hardiness, this buckwheat plant rises up amongst the rock on a windswept hillside
As we continue on our approach to Thunder Mountain, the views remain incredible. Silver Lake can be seen between some of the rocks in the distance. We look behind us and see a keyhole through one of the rock spires.
From the summit of Thunder Mountain we have beautiful 360° views with clear skies.
The rocks on and round the summit are covered with an array of colorful lichen.
We begin our return trip back down the trail, and are rewarded with views from the opposite direction. This large cone shaped mountain almost looks like an extension of my head when positioned right, and more neat looking rock formations look completely different from the opposite direction.
Kirkwood ski resort sits in the valley below us. I don’t quite know how skiers would get to this bridge line, but they have a lot of signage warning them of the danger. This one looks a little over the top in my opinion.
We continue walking past many more awesome looking rock formations I can’t resist getting pictures of them
Another plant sits by itself on the side of the trail. We did not see this on the way up. We think the sun may have been on it keeping its pedals closed now in the shade they open wide.
We dropped back down into the trees. And a mile later are back in the car.
Steven and Susan took some pictures of me on the trail a little ways in front of them. I’ve got them posted here at the end, along with a close-up of a rock archway we saw on the other side of the valley.
Today’s hike was 7.7 miles with a vertical gain of 1848 feet. The skies were crystal clear and the weather was comfortable with a nice cooling breeze most of the day.
