Cathedral Lakes and some other COOL stuff God made

On the road...

We have been wanting to do this trip for a few years. Kevin and Phil went up to the lakes a few years ago, but they hiked in the 17 km with packs on, up 1300m elevation gain. Let's just say I am in awe of them!! This trip we opted for the Unimog drive up to the base camp (any normal 4WD drive might not make this trip), so we could fully enjoy the hiking to be had up in the alpine meadows. It was absolutely stunning!! We hiked the Rim Trail the first day taking us up and around a whole panorama view across the peaks. The wildflowers we were told we in prime season!

Quiniscoe Lake

I love lupins! Fields and fields of them!

We made it back to our camp site about 5 minutes too late.. we were caught in a torrential hail storm and got completely soaked. The rain continued from 4:00 til around 8, when we could get out for a breather, then it started up again for the night. We made a quick supper in the tent, and played Yahtzee and tried to hang things up to dry inside with our clotheslines, and then went to sleep by 8:30. What else is there to do?

Day 2, we woke to sunny blue skies, thank the LORD, and we hit the trail in the early morning at 8:00 since we were awake by 5:30 :) This was one of our destinations-- Smokey the Bear:

But along the way, saw some very cool and different rocks and wildlife.

This one is for you Jacob-- he's peeing, actually it's a she.
Ladyslipper Lake from aboveLadyslipper Lake from in it :)

(KD photo)

Refilling our water bottles in a mountain stream. We were out for about an hour, so this was a much welcome find! I drank a whole liter in one swig!This is us in front of Smokey the Bear- yes we were up on top of that tallest peak looking down. Had no idea how high it was until the trail led us down around to the base! Incredible!!


Me in the lake, oh my sore feet, and icing my knee at the end of the day 5 pm..Wish we had one more day, but it was awesome! We saw so much amazing landscape and totally got sun burnt- who would remember to put sunscreen on at 8 am?

Some more KD photos (he took 300 and I've only seen these ones!):





(love those hiking poles Phil and Marcy- I let Kev use them a few times)