[MysteryMachine]

Mindy, Grace and I went to visit my parents in the Lynden area, with the plan being to have dinner with the family in the evenings and hiking during the days over the labor day weekend. I grew up hiking in the Baker area but my wife, Mindy, had never hiked there so I was excited to show her the area. After hearing the forecast we doubted we'd be able to do any hiking but packed all the gear just in case and drove up from Bothell (our home) to my parents farm in Lynden on Friday night (stopping at the cook road Bobs burger and brew for dinner of course!). Saturday morning we examined the weather and it appeared to be not so bad with sun breaks in the low clouds which could lead to some dramatic pictures so we headed out sometime around 11:30. Once we got to maple falls or so you could see the clouds around the mtns were not the same puffy low clouds over the lowlands. With this in mind we stopped at the Glacier ranger station and asked about visibility. The report was any views of Baker proper were out, ptarmigan ridge had 0 visibility but lowland peaks currently had visibility. I quickly went over the list of hikes (from the "pick 3 favorite baker hikes" thread I made in the trail talk forum) in my head and asked about Yellow Aster Butte and Heliotrope ridge. The ranger got excited at this point and said "Today is your lucky day, Glacier Creek road is only open for the weekend so if you have any desire to do Heliotrope ridge I strongly suggest it". So off we headed. The Glacier creek road is in great shape. I am not sure what more they need to do to it since it was nearly free of potholes. They said paving so perhaps they are going to pave all the remaining gravel patches. Either way it was one of the best FS roads, condition wise, I have driven this summer. At the trail head we met a nice older couple and their beautiful dog Chloe. Mindy and I were shocked to hear the dog was 14yrs old. After a nice chat with the couple and a trip to the rest room we started putting on our gear and were on our way. We were greeted by this beautiful orange giant near the beginning of the trail

Mushroom

The trail is in good shape, there is one blowdown you have to climb over and another one or two that you can easily duck under. The trail begins with an easy climb. Less than a mile into the trail we ran into the couple with the dog that we'd talked to in the parking lot, making their way down. They said the stream was too large for them to cross but some people were making it over. A little further we ran into another group coming down with the same story so we started to worry. Mindy really hates stream crossings. We reached the end of the climbing and shortly thereafter we ran into this beautiful little waterfall.

Mindy and Grace pose for photo

Small Mossy Falls

We then reached the stream people were unable to cross. It honestly was not too bad: basically doable with one big step. I helped Mindy across and then threw Grace gently over. The trail continues with very little elevation gain until you reach a second stream crossing which is about the same as the prior one, just one nice big step across. I must say I am really proud of Mindy for making these stream crossing. When she first started hiking around 12 yrs ago she had a phobia of stream crossing and never would have made it over. She has slowly gotten better and I was quite impressed.

Waterfall along the trail

Immediately after the second stream crossing you start to climb. Eventually reaching a cross roads for "Glacier Overlook" and "Climbers Route". We headed down the overlook trail and came upon a much larger stream than we'd crossed thus far. To sum it up we spent over an hour hiking up and down along the stream looking for a place to cross before giving up. The best spot we could find would have required a medium jump from one wet rock to another wet rock. We didn't want to risk a slip injury nor going through the whole taking off the boots etc and wading over so we gave up. It was a fun little adventure though Some pics of during that hour:

Looking for a place to cross

Grace smells the flowers

You Shall Not Pass!

So we decided to try the climbers route. The climbers route is pretty steep on mostly small loose rock. Its a thigh burner but the hike in general was easy so we had plenty of gas in the tank. The wind was absolutely howling over the ridge the climbers route went on. This route doesn't take up to the same up close view of the overlook but you get a very nice broad view:

Autumn Glacier View (good luck crossing that!)

Coleman Glacier

Falls from Coleman Glacier

The whole time we were there the clouds continued to thin out. This is about the max we saw of Baker, it looked like there was some fresh snow.

Baker (the visible part)

Here was the view looking back from where we came from:

Blue Skies (if only briefly)

I did happen to notice way off in the distance a very bright orange/red rock, it would have made some great pictures with the glacier if I could have gotten closer. This shot was with my camera zoomed all the way in and it still doesn't have the drama I would like (250mm on small sensor = approx 375mm)

Red Rock

We snacked just briefly at the top but left rather quickly due to the wind:

Glacier Melt (view from end of trail)

Mindy and Grace (taken with Mindy's P&S camera)

Here is a nice view of the coleman glacier taken from about half way back down the climbers route.

Coleman Overview

At this point I switched to my new macro lens hoping to get some shots that I had pointed out in my mind on the way up. On the way up we were not sure if the weather would hold so the plan was a fast hike up without stopping and picture taking at the top and if the weather held on the way down. Of course on the way down I couldn't find any of the things I noticed on the way up but I did get some nice macro shots. Macro shots were a lot easier/better than the last hike since in the last week I've been on a forum of professional users of my camera asking for advise on taking macro shots so I had a lot of tips (like never just taking one shot, putting it on continuous and taking advantage of the 7 pictures per second and hoping at least on turns out). Here are the macro shots from this week, you can compare to my first macro shots in the saddle lake TR last week and compare for yourself but I think these are better.

Summer Fades

Playing with the Macro

Holy Shrooms Batman!

Finally here is a stitched view from some shots from the glacier creek road as we drove out.

Stitched Pano

All in all a great hike, especially considering this weekend's weather!! We'd hoped to do more in the area on Sunday and or Monday but the weather did not cooperate so instead we spent family time playing board games. I am just really happy I had one good hike to show my wife some of what Baker has to offer.

[aywolfpac]

So the road was just open for this past weekend or it's opened permanently now? Excellent report and photos. I've been meaning to do this hike for a few years and just never get around to it.

[peltoms]

Some new snow I see on Baker, nice panorama

[MysteryMachine]

[Elvis]

Nice pics & TR MysteryMachine! Glad you timed that trip so perfectly and lucked out on the weather. We had a brief moment of sunshine (enough to generate a shadow) before it disappeared again. Looks like you had a lot more blue... and I love the shots of all the falls coming down the hill. Kudos!