Ahem... I think I'll pass..!
The mountain was in the clouds for awhile, but we waited at the moraine viewpoint for awhile, and the cloud cap cleared off nicely. Here's a pano:
...and here's a view from near the big cairn on the moraine:
...and some closer views of the mountain and Eliot Glacier
Chris was new to the area, so we made a few stops after the hike -- first at Cloud Cap Inn, where this pano shows just how close we were to losing the lodge to the Gnarl Fire in 2009:
The building was open for tours -- always a fun little gem to experience up close!
We then headed to the Tilly Jane Historic District and visited the various structures -- the Guard Station was especially nice, with new shutters that volunteers had just finished hanging! They will be painted green to match the window sashes next weekend:
The logging... well, there were a LOT of stacked trees that had been cut, and while it was frustrating (and silly) to cut so many trees in the name of "safety", the overall burn area is still standing, and will apparently be allowed to run its course as the forest recovers. These were old (and very solid) trees, so I still question the real motive behind the second round of "safety" logging -- most looked like this:
But alas, they're cut now. The are is still spectacular -- including the stark beautify of the burn, so great to finally be back up there after two years!
Tom
In fairness to Smokey Bear, it doesn't look a lot different than after the first log out of trees along the road in 2010, so it could have been a lot worse. I noticed that the loggers left debris across a couple sections of the historic stage road -- hopefully the USFS will get them to clean that up before the rest of the 
