being thankful for the freedom of our independence

or something like that. I know there was some patriotic holiday last week — I took the opprtunity to get almost as far away from park visitors as i could, by climbing Mt. Gibbs (12,700′) with a few friends. The only people we saw on the trail were other park service comrades…  these photos are from the last few weeks, but the ones with the best views were from July 4th…

here it is

the photo you’ve all been waiting for: Gypsy in a flat hat, doing my best impersonation of Smokey the Bear… flat hat

(even though he’s Forest Service and I’m Park Service, apparently we all wear the same hat)