For Fourth of July this year some friends and I backpacked up to the Cottonwood Lakes area in the John Muir Wilderness. What a great way to spend the holiday!

Four of us (including Pimby!) decided to dayhike up Mt. Langley, which has the distinction of being the southernmost fourteener (peak above 14,000 feet) in the United States.

We woke up at 4am and caught the beautiful sunrise from the top of New Army Pass:

The area is well above the tree line, and the terrain rugged and inhospitable:

Some 800 vertical feet below the summit of Mt. Langley the trail crosses a boulder field. This was tough going, and everyone told us dogs couldn’t make it past… but Pimby is tougher than tough and we made it through!

Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the contiguous US (just some 500 ft. higher than Mt. Langley) is visible to the right of me in the photo above, about 5 miles away.