Watching dawn break was as easy as turning my head over on my pillow. As the rising sun came closer to breaking over the horizon I crawled out of bed and walked out of the cabin to have a look around.
After enjoying breakfast and a relaxing morning we headed out in the 4runner to explore the Medicine Lake Highlands. We drove down the mountain and continued west along the Self Guided Geological Tour.
Our gasoline reserve was about half full and with another day of exploring and the nearest gas station being over an hour away, we chose not to travel too far.
We drove by Little Glass Mountain and its mounds of shiny black obsidian then continued toward Paint Pot Crater. We stopped at a nice meadow where we found a small body of water reflecting the billowy white clouds.
When we got near Paint Pot Crater I got out of the car and scrambled through the forest looking for a view but the tree cover never did open up enough for me to get a good vantage.
We continued along the graded dirt road taking a couple of detours down some rough forest service roads. We found a peaceful meadow where we stopped and had lunch.
After a peaceful picnic we drove back to the base of Little Glass Mountain where we got out and explored for a while.
As we scrambled around the chunks of obsidian we were careful to watch our step as rattlesnakes are quite common in the area.
Although it was tempting to try and make our way to the top of Little Glass Mountain we both were in the mood to relax so we ended up driving back up to the fire lookout.
Evening came soon enough and I ventured down about a hundred yards from the lookout to a prominent volcanic rock outcropping to watch sunset.
Once again the scattered clouds throughout the sky were set a blaze with color as the sun sank deeper behind the horizon.
I lit a fire in the provided outdoor fire pit and barbequed two delicious filet mignons.
The wind picked up significantly throughout the evening and during the night it was downright howling.
(Click HERE to read about Day 4 of our trip)
Are there any black bear ?
ReplyDeleteYes
Delete