Day 2: The Meadow and Arriving at Camp

And we're back to the backpacking photos! I'm really seriously going to get all these posted in the next two weeks, so we can really move on to something else. I love, love all the photos and it is a great reminder of coming summer, but I realize they are really taking forever to post and probably getting boring for those of you who kindly take time to check them out. So variety coming, I promise. In the meantime, a few more to end Day 2. Perhaps I'll do more interspersed posts like the protest ones if I can get out around town to take some new stuff!

So after we got over the pass, we descended relatively quickly into a very lovely meadow. The thing about meadows though, is while incredibly pleasant and pretty, they are really hard to photograph. I, for one, have not mastered it and for various reasons did not take the time to stop and focus on flowers and the like. So here is one rather sad attempt.

We passed another campsite with a nice lake. At this point, we didn't stop as we were not totally sure how far we had come.

The next section involved a little trail confusion, but then we pretty quickly made it back on track and passed by the awesome tree above. Then we arrived at our destination below.

We set up camp and everyone took naps. During this time, I walked around taking pictures for a bit. I'll only subject you to two below. I finally decided I would take a nap too and when I woke up everyone else was out exploring. I essentially stopped taking naps at age 2 because of the fear that something exciting would happen while I was sleeping, so I was temporarily rather unhappy about this situation. With many assurances that I hadn't missed anything spectacular and the thought of dinner, I recovered quickly though.

WI Protests

    

Views from the top!

The climb was well worth it. I love the giant boulders in the first picture! And it was a beautiful day.

Day 2: Leaving Camp

This is where the color pallet of the photos begins to be all the same for a bit, but it was a really gorgeous day, so there are lots of good photos. Plus, the hike out of a camp required a lot of breaks, so that means lots of pictures! Here we are looking off beyond where we camped (there is another lake up by that snow) and then down the trail from where we came the day before.

Day 1: Camp!

Camp! A lovely lake. A strange large group of youngish campers who seemed to be doing a lot of solitary contemplation joined us, but it was a big area, so we didn't actually talk to them. (Yes, we are antisocial, at least on the first day. On the last day, we were dying to talk to other people!) We enjoyed the break and the sunset!

Day 1 Part 2

Day 1 was relatively light, but the altitude required some heavy breathing. There were amazing wild flowers, but for some reason I only successfully photographed the orange ones....Check out the moon in the last photo! [Also I'm experimenting with a new method of putting the photos in the blog, which seems to take up less storage space, but makes them a bit larger! Excellent!]

Summer Mountains! Day 1

We now begin another trip series. I'll try to keep it short, since basically there are just a ton of mountain pictures (I tried to throw in a few flowers and people though...). In August, I went backpacking in the Southern part of Sequoia National Park around Mineral King. It was awesome, challenging, beautiful, everything you want in a backpacking trip. Some of the pictures were sort of disappointing and I have a new UV filter that was not working as well as I would like. Or more precisely, was causing more problems than I would like. (I still have no idea what the problem is/was...) Still, out of the 500+ photos I took, there are a few worth posting I'm sure :). I have very good intentions of getting out to take some fall pictures before it is too late as well, but we'll see if it happens. I may have already waited too long and I still have to write and apply for jobs before any such thing can happen! In the meantime, I'll dream of hiking in the mountains with no computer!