autumn in the northwest.

so many lovely fall photos from my phone and i need some other eyeballs to share them with! 😍

fall in the northwest is simply t h e b e s t .

enjoy.

qp

colchuck lake & aasgard pass, 2019.

we recently came to my blog to find our backpacking trip photos from last june, and i had never posted the pictures. for shame!

we could all use a dose of pretty nature photos right now since we can’t really get out or be outside very much anymore, so here we go - a belated backpacking trip to the enchantments from last summer!

and here’s a link to our enchantments backpacking trip in 2018.

beautiful colchuck lake!

pete won the enchantments lottery for overnight camping at colchuck, so we ended up staying 3 nights by this gorgeous lake, hiking around to other areas during the daytime.

^ we always take a photo of the trailhead area and a selfie in case we go missing, haha. sounds dark, but i’d hope someone would somehow find these images on the cloud, and crack the case as to where we are, should something happen.

the details are all coming back to me seeing these photos almost a year later. it completely down-poured as soon as we started up the trail, of courseeeeee.

hair soaked with rain and also just sweat, not gun lieeee. i’m always huffing and puffing on big hikes like this.

but wowowowowwww, what an amazing beautiful sight to behold. felt like a magical mermaid lagoon.

you can’t see it here because of the fog rolling in, but we’d later hike up that snowy part of the mountain, aasgard pass.

you can probably guess that it rained A LOT more over the next few days. classic pacific northwest in june. one day we spent probably 6 hours in the middle of the day playing cards & dice games just sitting in our sleeping bags in the tent. we were both totally fine with it and it was fun, just a bummer that we couldn’t go outside in the middle of the day.

just tried hard not to gobble up all the astronaut food and drink up all the boxed wine, haha.

always eating sooo many freeze dried meals. we are connoisseurs of the mountain house brand. love anything you can stick in a tortilla and douse in black pepper. really bulks up the meal while taking up very little space in our backpacks.

^ our cooking spot!

^ haha. re-enacting the goofy people on the front of the mountain house packaging.

that rainy tent day. i love my sleeping bag :)

beauuuutimus maximus.

pete will try and try and try with that tiny fishing pole he insists on packing.

^ has never caught a fish with this teeny pole.

appreciate the enthusiasm, tho.

need a canoe!

one day when the sun was out, we hiked up (and back down) aasgard pass. i would personally say this is a hardcore hike/scramble. poles are a must! great hiking boots are a must! if you have bad knees or hips, stay far far away from this place, lol.

most people hike up aasgard from colchuck lake and just continue onto another area of the enchantments or another lake, but we had to come back down aasgard pass to get back to our campsite at colchuck at the end of the day since that’s the area we had a permit for.

it’s another world up there!!!!!!! so wild and stunning.

just a bunch of mountain goats plunking around.

more astronaut food with my cute dude.

so funny that mountain goats are the majority at the top of aasgard pass. there were very few other humanoids passing through when we were there.

crazy, yah?? looks and feels like another planet.

my face is smiling, but my knees are crying for help.

OOOOOH AAAAAAH.

^ tiny billy goat quinn passing over this snow bank. this was much scarier than it might look.

in fact, now that i’m reviewing these photos, i’d say “scary” would best describe my impression of hiking up aasgard. and “joint pain” would describe my summary of hiking back down.

i woulda been dead in a crevasse without my poles! fully granny-ing it back to camp like “wtf just happened to my body??!”

^ a very accurate portrayal of my poopT feels when we got back down. the very best moment of the trip is when you can rip off your sweaty boots & socks, wiggle your toes and strap on your tevas! and a very well deserved happy hour by the lake to round out the day.

all-around eventful, beautiful, successful & memorable backpacking trip to colchuck & aasgard!

qp