Where do you go when you don't have a lot of time, but don't want to waste a beautiful day? I avoided the lines at Sunrise, and headed to Crystal Peak. I arrived around 8:45 am and found parking easily. There were a few people on the trail on the way up, but they thinned out once I took the fork to the peak.
Wildflowers are starting to bloom, and there was phlox, vanilla leaf, cow pasnip, sitka valerian, sitka ash, lupine, indian paintbrush, beardtongue, and some beargrass along the way. With bluebird skies, I had clear views of all 6 stratovolcanoes, which was worth the trip in and of itself! Black flies were pretty thick at the summit, but bug spray kept them off, and the rest of the trail was relatively bug free.
Note - I did hear some bears vocalizing at each other from the trail, but never saw them.
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