Obsidian Trail

Finally we made it to the PCT. Starting at this meadow, known as Sunshine, we left Glacier Creek and followed the PCT south:

Almost immediately we had another short climb:

This brought us up onto the plateau where all the obsidian is. As before, I found it difficult to photograph:

This is Obsidian Creek. Like Glacier Creek, it flows directly out of the cliff face in the background:

From there the creek flows off the edge of the plateau over Obsidian Falls:

Once we got past the falls, the trail split from the PCT and headed back down. This time it followed Obsidian Creek most of the way back to the lava flows:

Amanda spotted a grasshopper:

She also spent considerable time trying to get a good close-up of this butterfly. I think it was worth the effort:

Once we got back to Glacier Creek right before the lava, we took a well-earned break:

As we climbed over the lava we got one last great view of the North (left) and Middle (right) Sisters:

The rest of the walk was a stumble through the trees. All told we covered 11 miles. What a wonder-filled day!

Here is my KMZ file with my route for the day. Please feel free to download the file and view it in Google Earth.