Daddy-Daughter 2015

What a great campout! I have made a tradition of taking the girls camping each year. They were able to have several friends who joined them on the campout (about 50 people in all).

We arrived on Thursday. We rode a shuttle to Bear Lake and then hiked a hike I had heard about--Flattop Mountain. This is a 9-mile round trip hike that elevates well out of treeline to an elevation of 12,324 feet. The girls did great. Ava hiked all but about 1/2 mile of the hike. She was running all the way down. The girls were definitely cold and tired when they peaked, but they were troopers. I won't mention the lightning that started as we were peaking. In all, we hiked close to 20 miles in 3 days. I've got great girls!

The girls with Emerald Lake in the background

Ava with Bierstadt Lake in the background on the left and Sprague Lake on the right

Taking a break

Jordan was getting a little tired

Rain on the next peak over

Snow, rain, green grass, and rocks in one beautiful setting

If you look closely, you should see a small abrasion

Ava demonstrating her prowess

After the big hike, Ava's friend showed up, making Ava's day!

Inseparable Companions

We went on another hike on Friday, hiking from Bear Lake to Dream Lake to Nymph Lake to Emerald Lake to Lake Haiyaha. It was beautiful! As we turned a corner, I saw Ava standing on a rock. She looked like she was posing. I said, "Oh, did you want me to take a picture of you?" Clearly that's exactly what she wanted.

Taking another break

Lake Haiyaha

If you look closely, you'll see hail falling. Yay.

Mandatory S'Mores!

Jordan doing her happy dance

Good morning!

Jordan's Crew

Kailyn's Pals

The girls did set up the tent again with minimal help from me

Jordan at "Deadman's Drop"

We went to Alluvial Fan with the girls. Upstream is a lake with a dam that broke years ago and then flooded again 2 years ago.

We ended with some geocaching. What a blast!

Ava was not tired when we got home.