Olympic National Park in Washington State.

Easy Pass is a low divide easily accessible from the Obstruction Pass Trailhead via Grand Valley. At the upper end of Grand Valley, a volunteer trail snakes up to Low Pass divide, and from there goes south to Lake Lillian. I didn’t make it to the lake, but instead had a spectacular rambler exploring the unglaciated scee slopes and meadow untrammeled by the heavier use over in Grand Valley.

For me, I realized this area was special the moment I first saw it, rambling among an unchanged subalpine landscape far older than the last inter-ice age. While these valleys were generally filled with small glaciers, the ridgetops were ice-free. Surface rocks were frozen in winter, pried apart with expanding water in spring and things generally just stayed as they were, for centuries. Imagine walking on this, over rocks untrammeled by human feet except maybe paleo-hunters. It’s a spiritual experience for me, and it’s not the mountain top I’m always aiming for, but just being there – a solitary place in a busy world.