Into the Caldera 5/13/07

(Above) About halfway through the mountains, on Mosquito Pass, you will climb to the head of the pass. This is not too steep of a climb, but during some soft, deep snow years may be a challenge. It was easy for us this time. Right at the top of the pass, to the west, is this blown out volcano cone. The caldera inside the cone is filled with water in the summer, but in the winter it freezes.

The picture is looking west, and shows the remaining walls of the cone, and at the bottom you can see a gargantuan rock pile from what broke off the cone walls. This happened recently ... who knows exactly when? But you can see the pink face where rocks recently sheared off. This picture was taken with both of us inside the Caldera, which is quite an adventure in itself.

At the very top of the peak in the middle you can discern a rock. It is about the size of a rail locomotive, and looks ready to teeter down, like in Wiley Coyote cartoon. We were circumspect around it.

(Above) This picture is similar to the first one, but with the camera angled more to the right, to look past the rock pile. Notice that Kenny is zooming down towards me, after highmarking the Caldera. He did not get too adventurous ... this is avalanche country! Some of my feeble attempts at highmarking things can be seen at the far right. A 277 Fan engine only gets you so high ...!