Labor Day Weekend

I was off on Labor Day itself.  When you work for a place that is open every day of the year and you can work every day of the year...it's a rare occurrence to have holidays off.  (I had to work Sunday, so I definitely got my holiday pay!)

Two co-workers, Katie (interp) and Chris (law enforcement), and I decided it was high time to summit Wheeler for the season.  We started bright and early Monday morning and had a grand hike.

When we hit the saddle between Wheeler and Bald mountains, we could look into Spring Valley to the west.  There is a brand new (less than six months) wind farm that was just installed.  I know it's better than a coal plant, but doesn't do a whole lot for the view shed.  I'm a ranger, the view is a resource and I've vowed to protect all park resources.

We made it to the top in about 2.5 hours; same time as last year.  We had the whole summit to ourselves.  The view was grand, the weather perfect, the company lovely... what more could a girl ask for?

When we hit the saddle coming down, Katie and Chris headed back to the trail head, and I headed off trail and up Bald Mountain.  I made better time than I thought.  There are some really cool weather monitoring stations up there; this is the modern station.

This is the archaic station.  It was beyond windy on Bald and I hunkered down on the east side of this pile of rocks to eat my lunch.

Hello Wheeler and Jeff Davis, from roughly (no, not really) the same elevation!

Me, on Bald, elevation 11,562 ft, looking to Wheeler, elevation 13,063ft, where I was earlier that day.  Awesome!

I had the following Tuesday off of work as well.  After some serious outdoor spiritual rejuvenation, I headed to Manti, Utah, for some indoor spiritual rejuvenation.  Just as lovely.

It was a grand weekend.  Two weeks ago I officially finished hiking all the trails in the park.  I'm now moving on to the routes.  I have exactly one month from today to finish, as my season out here ends on Oct. 6.  Bring on winter....

Especially since I have a job at Death Valley National Park!