Mount Baker on a Sunny Day

Yesterday was a great day. The sun was shining, there wasn't a cloud in the sky and we went out to see if I could get some good photos.


The mountains were really gorgeous. I got this shot of Mount Baker which, believe it or not, was 40 or 50 miles from where we were - a place called Fir Island! Joan said that Mt. Baker isn't always visible because of clouds so I was really lucky in that regard.

Did you know that it's actually an active volcano, it's almost 11,000 feet tall and it's 15,000 years old. I read that although it emits steam regularly, it hasn't erupted for more than 2,000 years.

Good thing, too, because it's a very popular ski area. It's always covered with a thick blanket of snow. It's a very popular climbing mountain but it requires "glacial travel and crevasse-rescue skills" (that's a direct quote from a newspaper report on mountain climbing in Washington) and the weather can change abruptly.

Here are a couple of other photos that I found on Flickr - since I'll never get up close and personal with that mountain, I'll never get any closer shots...

From the Flickr Photostream of Running Clouds. (Check out his other awesome skiing shots.)

This photo I found on Rusty O.P.'s photostream. If you pull up his photostream from this link and have your mouse hover over the photo, you can see he has highlighted an avalanche! Really.

I dunno......active volcano...dangerous crevasses...severe weather..."glacial travel & crevasse-rescue skills...??

Frankly, being 40 - 50 miles away appeals to me.