We had a wonderful time camping at Panorama Point on Baker lake over the 4th of July weekend. We got there Friday night pretty late, and had to setup the tent in the dark. Not something I really recommend folks try, especially with a baby and a new giganto North Face tent.
The next day was nice, and Sara got to practice eating some real food. Most everyone else had nice camp breakfasts composed of pancakes and bacon.
Later that day we took a nice hike to a place called, Blue Lake. It is a fairly decent altitude alpine lake, and I think folks were surprised how long the drive over rough roads were. The lake was very beautiful and there was still plenty of unmelted snow on the trail. Sara had a lot of fun pulling her hat off, to see who would pick it up.
That evening our friends the Mote’s showed up and we had a wonderful stew that everyone contributed to. It was very tasty. The next day (the 4th) we all decided to go on a nice little hike to the east side of Baker lake. The floods that hit the region last fall had completely destroyed the trail and a steel girder bridge over a big stream. Fortunately we could still make our way down to the lake and the kids and Karen had a blast swimming in it.
That evening we had a nice campfire and made s’mores. The kids were somewhat disappointed by the fact that they could not see or have fireworks in the national forest. So I decided we could make “virtual fireworks” with my digital camera set to a really slow shutter speed. (2s for the shot below).
