Lakes Basin

I have had a fairly insane schedule at work this summer and with kids camps and activities, Tob on fires, and going to a week long conference in colorado has made doing much of anything impossible, so when we had 4 solid days together (minus dad unfortunately) we planned our annual backpacking trip.  This year we headed up to the Lakes Basin in hopes of the kids climbing eagle cap, which you can clearly see in the background.

We really enjoy having friends come along so this year we invited Katie to join us for Lex and then had some friends from La Grande (Korrie and Cody) come over and meet up with us on day two so Nojah and I had friends too.  The hike is 7 miles in to mirror lake where we camped and this is where they opted to take their lunch break 1/2 way in.

This is probably one of my favorite photo's of the trip.  Katie and Lex are truly just the best of friends.  Here the girls had soaked their hair in the river on a break and then Lex brushed Katie's hair out for her.  Pretty cute.

  On day 2 we were super excited when Korrie and Cody arrived and we all had our friends. 

 The next day after that was the start of our adventure up to Eagle Cap (the center of the eagle cap wilderness, which sits at roughly 9600 ft).  Korrie and I have both been up there multiple times but were excited for the kids to have the experience.

This is just one of the gorgeous views near the top looking down the East fork drainage that we hiked in.  Check out the awesome blue green glacial puddle we saw along the way.

They climbed about 2500 feet in 2.5 miles in about an hour and a half and thought the views of the wilderness were totally worth it.  Nojah claims he arrived at the top about 15 or 20 min ahead of the rest of us, which is probably true.  After they had enough of the views, photos, and inhaled their lunches, they scurried off to play hide and seek in the small area of trees.

Overlooking Glacier lake

Just love these girls

Instead of going down the same we came up we thought it would be more interesting to go off trail and make a loop down to glacier lake and back around to camp.  The kids loved all the glissading and playing along the way.  Snow is always a bonus in August!

Glacier was a much larger lake than I thought.  I have never been there and now it's definitely on my favorites list.  

The kids enjoyed skipping rocks with their slingshots in the lake.

and the dogs enjoyed napping.

The gorgeous morning views from our campsite.  The reason I backpack.  It's always hard to come home.

and a picture of the moms, for proof we were there.