No Bears Allowed

This post is a little bit late. We went as a family on a short overnight camping trip back in June and I finally uploaded the pictures to our computer. We had a lot of fun. We have not gone on many camping trips and this was a little bit of a test to see if the girls still like it. I didn't really know of a good pull-off-the-road and camp spot, so I headed up toward mirror lake. As we entered the forest area, I had to purchase a parking permit. Along with that they gave us a pamphlet about what to do if you see a bear. Well that was no comfort to Marja and she wasn't sure we should continue on with the trip. We found a campground to camp at ($16 a night!) and set up camp.


We roasted marshmallows and made Smores after dinner. You can see that Marja and the girls really enjoyed this. It has partially inspired us to build a fire pit in our own back yard.

Violet's favorite thing was to throw pine cones and the teeniest pieces of wood she could into the fire. You can see below how excited this made her. She even had to do a dance after each throw.














We found a fairy forest near our camp. You had to cross the creek on this log and head towards the opposite mountain and there it was. A forest full of painted rocks by the fairies. (By the way, we were informed any fairies caught painting rocks would receive a $100 fine.) There were all kinds of rocks all over the place. It was very interesting and a little creepy.







After dinner we drove over to Mirror lake to walk around. There is a trail that goes all the way around this beautiful lake, but it was all muddy because there was still some snow. So we walked a little ways on a board walk that crosses the inlet to the lake.







We all slept in a big tent, thanks to Cathy and Travis and had a great time. Most of us slept OK. Marja and I did wake up about 3:00 am and Violet was just shivering. Apparently, she had gotten underneath her sleeping bag like a blanket instead of inside the bag like you are supposed to. She was just huddled up, whimpering until we helped her in her bag. Because the spot that we pitched the tent was so shady, the morning sun didn't really wake us and we all slept in a little bit.

Later that day we went for a hike up to Wall Lake. You can see Violet here and yes, there was still snow. The trail passes by a couple of lily covered lakes and weaves over to a lake that has a great rock wall for climbing. We didn't see anyone on the trail until just before we got to Wall Lake and then down came a group of scouts who must have camped there overnight. When we got to the lake there must have been 9 or 10 other scout groups there. It was fairly filled with scouts shout all across the lake. Our girls didn't mind though. They just worked on their favorite activity at the lake: throwing rocks in!


































All in all it was a fabulous trip! Marja even consented to try it again sometime.