Hike to Echo Mountain

Last Friday those of us in Pasadena woke up to this gorgeous view of snow low on our mountains. (This is the view from my balcony.)

View from balcony

When it looked like there was a break in the storm, Cari and I decided to hike up the mountain. We’d gone about 45 minutes up a couple of times before, but we wanted to get to the top this time. The snow was a big incentive.

It was a gorgeous day for a hike and the views were spectacular.

Beautiful day

Climbing

At one point we stopped to take a look and realized there was a huge storm cloud coming. It’s hard to really get the scale of it all, but I tried with the panorama function on my iPhone.

Panorama of weather

But we were on a quest and weren’t stopping until we got to the top. We got pummeled with some hail — luckily it was tiny pieces. And then the hail turned to snow flakes. For this California kid, it was awesome.

Finally, after about an hour and forty-five minutes, we made it to the top.

We made it!

It’s pretty cool up there. There are remnants of old structures and the railroad that was there. Very fun to see bits and pieces of the history.

The snow was still too far away for us to walk around in, but it was great to be up so high. And again, the views were fantastic.

Snow still too far away

View from the top clearing up

We had a lovely walk down the mountain in perfect sunny and cool weather with no more rain or hail.

I have a few more pictures here.