Cruising through the empty hills a massive crater came into view. As I the edge of the crater a lake formed by snow melt rested at the bottom; generously feeding the deep green trees that were lucky enough to live by it. I stopped to appreciate the view. Birds chirped, squirrels ran, purple patches of flowers bloomed. The lake sat in the middle of it all. During the beauty of that moment nothing else mattered. …show more content…
There's a path that runs down and past it into a deep forest that I knew I was going to take later in the day, but needed to first summit the daunting mountain in front of me.
The mountain had two other sisters. They were called North and Middle. My destination was South Sister. Together they were the three sisters of the Cascade Range that separated Oregon.
With the hills to my back I stood at the base of South. I dwarfed beneath her, and took my first step onto her distinguished trail. As the hiking started only peoples and sand lay across the path. Then gradually pebbles turned to rocks, and rocks to large, black, boulders. Each step felt as if I was on a never ending staircase. I looked down the mountain and it appeared as if I had made no progress. Looking up it seemed the end wouldn't come anytime soon. The best place to focus was my feet. One step, and then another.
Getting higher the views became spectacular. A massive series of turquoise lakes rested at South's base, and about three miles away from Moraine Lake, separated by the woods. Rising up from the turquoise lakes another mountain