Taylor Westphal Photography: Leavenworth Glaciology

I'm actually taking TWO glaciology classes this quarter, because that's how insane I really am. So, instead of driving all the way down to UW to park, squeeze into a top-heavy deathtrap (more on that in a second) and then have to get taken all the way back there just to come back home late, I decided to just drive my own car over to Leavenworth and meet the class. Not only am I super fast, but they had some trouble getting rolling in the morning, and I ended up getting to leavenworth about 45 minutes ahead of the class.

I used this time to scout out the icicle ridge trailhead, which I've been meaning to do for a long time, and now definitely want to do the whole trail.

Since I had time to burn, I bounced up the trail for 10-15 minutes to take some pictures of the lovely fall color.

There was plenty to be had.

I think this one is my favorite.

Then, off to meet the kids. It turned out that there was NO room in the vans anyway, so I decided to stick with my car and follow the vans around, and took a few people in my car too. Which was fun, because my car rocks, but doesn't roll.

Like field camp (hiking and coloring), we spent the day playing with dirt and counting boulders.

There is this guy outside of leavenworth who is rich and strange, he built his own mini train track for his own mini train that tourists come up and ride around for a fee. Apparently he wears the little conductor hat and everything.

This particular class is mixed, co-taught with the lower level glacier class. So there were a few students who had ZERO interest in participating or even pretending to pay attention. Too bad too, because it was really interesting material from one of the leading experts in glaciology of this area.