There is so much snow around Mt Baker this year that most of the high country trails are covered by 20-25 ft. There was a lot of snow late last winter, and the evening temperatures around Mt Baker are uncommonly very cool this year, and so the snow doesn't melt. Usually in the summer, there are temperature inversions in the mountains, and in the evenings, the temperature remains in the 60's. Not this year.

 

Heleotrope Ridge Trail is one of the few trails that is open for hiking. The only snow is at streams and where there were avalanches. Otherwise free of snow. And the snow provides snow bridges to cross the streams.

 

At the end of the trail is Coleman Glacier (pictured below). We are at around 5400 ft at this point. The glacier is a few hundred feet from us--we can walk to it and touch it, but it's scary doing so because of the steepness of the traverse. This day was overcast; the glacier had a blue-green tint to it--very beautiful.

 

 We encountered around 60 people on the trail that day. Nearly all of them were either heading up to summit Mt Baker, or they were on their way down. There are three trails off Heleotrope Ridge Trail used to summit Baker. Usually mid-week, we are the only people on the trail, so this was uncommon to encounter so many people. And frankly, we all prefer to believe that the trail is all ours--at least for the day we are hiking.