After some cooler temperatures of late, a high pressure system that surrounded us this weekend brought cloudless skies, zero wind and some warmer weather. The perfect opportunity to go on a hike up a mountain. And the mountain of choice this time 'round was Whiteside Mountain, a short drive from where we live. As per our last adventure to Rockhouse Falls, we grabbed our gear, cameras and water, and headed out to see what awaited us.

Having figured out what to be aware of and promising one another we would not pick the plants/flowers, we started the trek up the mountain. They say it's about a two hour loop trail, but being the young, athletic folk we are, we completed it in about an hour and fifteen minutes.

It's a reasonable distance up this stretch, with the rock face on the right and a steep drop to the left. But once we finally rounded the corner at the top, we were rewarded with this.

We had an early start, so the sun was still low and shining towards us - not the best lighting for photography - but if you look closely at the photograph above, you'll see the mountains just going on and on and on... Awesome. The images below are taken to the left of those taken above.

As we left this lookout, we spotted this sign.

Err, thanks US Forest Service but I'm happily walking along the top of the mountain and have absolute no desire to dangle off the edge of it. The trail continued with more stunning views along the way.

Some of these views require a little clambering to photograph - I promised the "missus" a credit for the shot below.

© 2012 Malice Grant

As we headed down the other side of the mountain and back to the car, we spotted this picturesque dead tree - it took clambering (full of fear) down towards the cliff edge to capture it, but some crawling later it was snapped and we were safely back on the trail.

All in all, another great trek In The Wild and a place we'll no doubt be returning to as the seasons change. 

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