After 4 days of rain and fog, we finally had amazing clear weather and popped out above the treeline shortly after the golden hour of the rising sun

morning at Mowich Lake

beautiful Mowich Lake

lush rainforest

this is at Second Beach, not from the Wonderland Trail, but it one of my favorite photos from the trip. That's me up on the rock!

a majestic elk checking out our campsite. We had a staring competition for a few minutes, just 20 yards away

One of MANY stream/river crossings.

the Wonderland Trail is notorious for its elevation changes, as seen here as this switchback snakes up a steep incline

Carbon Glacier

Scrambling to plan our campsite permits out at the ranger station. We got up at 4:30am and hiked 2 miles to be first in line.

Safety first on the Tahoma Creek Bridge! Only a few slats were missing from the 165ft tall suspension bridge

visibility was poor as we headed up to the highest point of the trail, Panhandle Gap, standing at 6750ft

exploring a mini-ice cave

awesome foot bridge at Indian Bar

vodka and donuts! Perfect trail magic (courtesy Snaps) after a 15 mile day with constant cold rain

view from our campsite at Granite Creek. There are only 3 sites at this spot and when we arrived all were taken. A park ranger was there and decided to lay down the law, checked everyone's permit, and told the imposters to beat it. "But we are so tired!" they complained, "Your campsite is only 5 miles away" he replied, "but its already 4pm" "You can make it, you best get going"

on top of Emerald Ridge before descending into the South Puyallup River valley