21.5 miles of hiking • 6500' elevation gain • 3 nights
Parking a zoo at Carbon River Entrance, but most of them humans did not stray far from their vehicles. We biked up the closed road to Ipsut Campground (reservations required), and spent the night in a beautiful old growth forest along the Carbon River.
Next day we hiked up to Windy Gap via Wonderland to the Northern Loop trail. We then entered the magnificent alpine backcountry and didn’t see any people until we tumbled back onto the Wonderland two days later. Climbed up thru Crescent Gap (this was the crux with a bit of sketchy stuff), and camped on the summit of Crescent Mountain. Heaven!!!!!
Next day we dropped down into the Elysian Field, wandered around, then climbed Old Desolate-an easy scramble. We then dreamily wandered over to our last nights camp on a high plateau in Moraine Park, carefully picking out the perfect tent spot. Goat watching and meteors.
Nutty downclimb the next day back to the human parade of the Wland, and a fast walk out losing all the eg we earned. Sad to leave the alpine. Super fun zoomy bike ride downhill back to TH.
Sarah Johnson
August 15, 2020
Looks like an awesome adventure!