Mt. Catherine, WA

This was my second trip to the top of Mt. Catherine. My first trip was on July 18, 2002 which puts this trip about one month earlier than last year's trip. The weather was much better this year and so are the pictures. Honestly it was a perfect day to be at the top of Mt. Catherine. There was occasional light wind, warm sunshine, and a few light clouds in the sky. So perfect that I couldn't help but lie down at the top and take a short nap in the sun. There was a lot of snow near the top of the mountain with many parts of the trail still covered with snow.

(June 15, 2003; up-55 min, down-35 min)

This if the view from the trail head to Mt. Catherine looking south east.	Although the trail starts out in an open area with a path full of stones one quickly reaches trees that have grown up since the area was clear cut.	Looking back over the trail towards the west.
Red Mountain (north).	Lake Keechelus in the distance (east).
	Mt. Rainier in the distance (south).	Before I fell asleep at the top I took this picture while I was reclined against a few rocks. How does dirt get to the very top of a mountain?
I believe this flower is called Smooth Douglasia. It is a mat-forming perennial. There was quite a bit of it growing on the rocks at the top of Mt. Catherine.		It was amazing the number of flying things that were at the top of Mt. Catherine. This is a picture of one of the half dozen butterflies that were hanging out at the top. There were also quite a few birds zooming past the top of the mountain.
	This short movie shows a 2pi view from the top of Mt. Catherine. (5.2MB QuickTime format)

Click on a thumbnail above to see a larger version of the picture.

The pictures in this gallery were taken with a Sony DCR-PC100 1-mega pixel camera. Email me if you would like a higher resolution version of any of these pictures.