King's Peak

Rob and I climbed King's Peak on July 29-31st. It was sort of an anniversary trip since our 31st anniversary was August 1st. The weather was fantastic (meaning dry!) and we had a wonderful time. This is the second time we've done this hike. Last time it was with Rachel and McKay and Steve Hobbs. Bad weather that time!

Here we are at the trailhead. We have 8 miles to go to our campsite at Dollar Lake.

This is on the trail going in. On the left is our lunch stop. On the first day we had fresh food--bagels and cream cheese and sliced apples. Yum. In the middle you see me as we're closing in on Dollar Lake. You can see King's Peak in the background. It's in the very center--the little, sharp peak. On the right is Rob on the trail.

This now is day two. From Dollar Lake to the summit is 8 miles, so it's a long 16 mile day. This is just a couple of miles from camp at Gunsight Pass. We met up with a Dad and son who we hiked with all day. They took this photo for us.

Here we are getting close to the summit. Almost all the way is regular trail, but the last part is bouldering.

Here we are at the top. Yea!!!

Here we are still at the top. Last time we did this hike we had about 60 seconds on top to quickly snap a photo before a storm moved in. This time we reveled in being able to stay as long as we wanted. We spent about an hour up top. It was pretty chilly except when the sun came out. Then there was glorious warmth!

These three are just beautiful views from the top.

Here we are at camp. On the left is Rob sipping hot chocolate. I'm setting my stuff up in the center pic. I'm blowing up my super-duper Big Agnes pad, which is part of a integrated bag/pad system. It's the goods! We spent a ton of time reading. Rob was reading a book called "The Emperors of Chocolate." I was reading "The Devil in White City"--on my Kindle of course. :)

Here I am hanging our food, and Rob is showing off our gravity water filter. I used it in Dark Canyon earlier this summer, but this is the first time Rob had used it. He's a believer!

Now we're heading home. In the center, back you can barely see King's Peak.

On the way out--The foot bridge at Elkridge Crossing, me eating lunch at Elkridge, and Rob on the trail.

And, finally, here we are back at the parking lot. We had a really fabulous time! We left camp at 1:00 pm, and even with a 45 minute lunch break we were at the parking lot by 5:00. Going out is a lot faster than going in because it was gentle down hill! We stopped at Wally's Burgers for burgers, fries and malts, in Evanston, on the way home and were home by 9:00.