South Cascades Archives | One Hike A Week / 每週一行

A Bullion Basin Reverie / 金塊盆地的遐想

Today the plan was to go through a handful of old trips. But instead, I found myself start packing for another outing.

While researching recent outings, I came upon an alternate approach from Olallie State Park.

I first took notice of the two peaks while climbing Burnt Mountain across the Carbon River Valley.

In an effort to avoid the potentially dire Thanksgiving weather, I decided to move our pilgrimage to the peak ahead by two days.

Saturday snow level along the Highway 2 corridor was around 3,000'; today the first patch of snow appeared just above 5,000'.

Last September we had a good run up to the very last weekend before weather conditions worsened.

We hadn't set foot in the area since three years ago. The year before that I went up Tolmie Peak just south of here.

All the years of staring at Crystal Mountain (aka Silver King) from across the basin, we finally got the chance to pay a visit.

On the spur of the moment I decided to take advantage of today's partly sunny weather, for an afternoon hike to this new destination close to home.

The awesome weekend weather was too good to pass up, especially after yesterday’s outing

Staying close to home and taking advantage of the rain after 4 PM forecast, pup and I set off to this oldie

Crystal Mountain Boulevard was clear of snow and ice despite low morning temperatures, no problem getting to the gated Gold Hill Road