For years now I have made the arduous but beautiful hike into Verdant Pass in the hopes of seeing the ever elusive CARIBOU and yesterday was one more such trip....except this time I was so fortunate to see the no longer elusive beasts.
We first saw the herd at a distance and were so excited to see 2 calves with the 4 adults. We continued to the left away from the group and figured ourselves lucky with the sighting, however it seemed that we were a curiosity to the herd and they circled around to follow us a couple of times! Too magical!
The trail up to the pass was in great shape and it remains my most favorite place here without a doubt. Met with one of the horse outfitter getting ready to take a party into camp, who said that the slide path has been cleared and all bridges in good shape on the Astoria trail. The bugs were mild compaired to our hike today into Geraldine Lakes! All things in perspective! Let the hiking season continue as nicely!!

Nice. Did you happen to catch a shot of the back of Edith-Cavell?

^ haha yes actually I did get a shot of the back side

Thanks Lobo I have been hiking some trails that I hadn't been on for awhile, between the rain, mosquitoes and a new relationship I haven't put on quite as many miles as last year! lol
Moro Peak
Getting to a trail head
However still having a really great summer!
Beauty Creek was wonderful....

That must have been satisfying! Nice muddy boot shot.

Over thirty years ago I did one of my favorite map trips in that area. A map trip is one of those excursions where I chose a route based on topographical map information alone.

We started at the Astoria trailhead and backpacked up, into, and over Verdant Pass, my first visit to that area, to camp in meadows near a lake south of Chevron Mountain. Next day we travelled south past another lake then side hilled west between 6500 and 7000 above the Whirlpool Valley to descend into a forest camp in the valley running SW from the head of Eremite Valley. Next day took us up this valley, past another lake, to a pass south of Thunderbolt Peak to a meadow camp near the head of Eremite Valley with views of the Ramparts. Next day we backtracked a bit to make a tricky up and over through a pass SSW of Thunderbolt Peak to reach Campus Creek and a camp in the meadows west of Campus Pass. In this area we saw a herd of close to twenty caribou. Our last day saw us go through Campus Pass, along the west side of Beryl Lake and Buttress Lake and so back to Verdant Pass and out to the road.

The Campus Pass meadows are some of the prettiest I have seen. While there I did some solo scrambling to summit some of the bumps to the south.

Thanks Lioness. Looks like you got quite a bit past Stanley Falls while doing Beauty Creek, I hope to do the same someday.

Awesome, that's great you saw the caribou! Verdant Pass is such a nice area!