Last weekend, my friends and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather to hike up Mt. Pierce.  It ended up being a really great hike – the weather was perfect, it was steep enough to be challenging but easy enough to be safe as we learned about hiking in the late fall.

The first major attraction was this beautiful waterfall – Gibbs’ waterfall, I think.  It was a little spur off the side of the trail but well worth the walk. The lower parts of the path were full of water features -so fun!

The second feature was the large amount of grey jays flying around! My friends decided to offer them some food and they flew right into their hands!  (A caveat: I’m not a fan of feeding wild animals and thus don’t feed them myself.)

I was, however, happy to take pictures of the pretty birds and they were quite happy to pose for me!

From the summit of Mt. Pierce – Eisenhower in the foreground and Washington behind it.  I’ve never been up on such a clear, beautiful day and it was so amazing to see the Presidentials in such splendor!

A mountain range to the northwest of Eisenhower and Washington – the day was so lovely, and crisp and cool.  Truly it was the perfect fall hike.

A final grey jay picture! I can’t actually decide if I like this picture or not, so please leave thoughts in the comments if you have any!

All in all, Pierce was a fantastic hike – it was steep enough to be constantly challenging but not so bad as to be exhausting and just chilly enough to make me appreciate a good workout!