Obsidian Trail

I made a promise to my youngest daughter, Amanda, that I would take her up to see the Obsidian area this summer. She got her bachelor’s degree and she’s a good kid, so on August 17th we hit the trail. My wife Tina came with us.

Obsidian is a heavy use area and is thus a restricted entry area as well. I had to reserve permits well in advance. On the way in there was a post explaining the restrictions:

You can read more about the restrictions on this area here.

I had just walked through the PCT section of this hike a couple weeks earlier, so most of the pictures this time were of the trip up to the PCT and the trip back down again. In fact, I didn’t take most of these pictures. Amanda took nearly all of them, concentrating on wildflowers and insects. I did take some scenery shots however.

The beginning of the hike was the standard “uphill hike through trees” you get with almost any trail headed into the Three Sisters Wilderness from the west side. A ways into the hike we came to the lava flow that, down the slope a couple miles, dammed any possible outlets to a small valley, creating Linton Lake. Here you can see Amanda (with Tina obscured in front of her) heading up the side of the flow:

It’s about 1/2 mile across the lava bed. As you come off the other side you descend to Glacier Creek, visible on the left in this picture:

After crossing the creek, the trail follows it almost all the way up to the PCT. Along the way are a number of meadows which were absolutely filled with wildflowers: