Our plan for day 2 was to climb Merriam and Royce Peaks, both 13,000ers. It was another wonderful day, albeit a bit hot. One thing that I didn't plan for was the brutal heat and constant sunshine above treeline. There was nowhere to escape the sun, sometimes Brad and I would crawl under a rock just to get out of the heat for a few short minutes. In this respect it was more like being in a desert climate, something I definitely did not consider in my calculations. The good news was that the first two days were by far our hottest, and the temperatures moderated on the the remaining days.

While hiking along Royce Lake No. 3 I took this shot of Feather Peak.