The Mount Baker Experience

As the weekend crowds poured into Birch Bay State Park, I drove up to the Mount Baker area to see if I could find a camp spot.  I wasn’t worried because I could just pick up a permit at the Ranger’s station and park anywhere, but finding a camp spot where I can set up camp is much nicer.  I drove into a campground a few miles out of the small mountain town of Glacier and found a great spot up on the higher level looking over the rest of the campground.  I decided to stay a few days and set up my camp, including my Canopy, which is difficult for me to set up by myself.

That evening the camp host came along and told me that I had to be out of the spot tomorrow as it was reserved for the weekend.  I was so bummed.  I was all settled in for the weekend (It was a Thursday evening) and seriously bummed I had to not only move, but find out if I could even get another camp spot.  The host said after she makes her rounds she would come back and tell me what would be opening up the next day.  It took her quite a long time but she came back, as she said she would, and told me there were three sites that she knew of opening up and she gave me the numbers.  She said that there was a nice one right on the river opening up but it was a first come, first serve site and she didn’t know when they were leaving.

The next morning, when I woke up, I made coffee and decided to take a walk to check out the three sites.  The one on the river was already vacated at 8am, so I took my shawl out and threw it over the picnic table and put my coffee cup on it.  I then ran back to my campsite and grabbed my camp chair and actual table cloth and took it to my new camp site.

Life upgraded me to a beautiful space right on the rushing river.  It was inconvenient to have to move, yes, but well worth it.

My journey up to Mount Baker was beautiful.  I hiked the Chain Lakes trail to the summit and hit the snow so decided to go back down the way I came rather than try to navigate all the snow banks ahead.  The views from the summit were incredible and it was just as beautiful hiking back down the Mountain as going up.  It was a tough, up hill hike, but well worth the journey.