We’re just back from a two-night backpacking trip in the Rockies. It was my first official backpacking trip ever and I came home loaded with good memories, lots of photos, and dreams of trips to come. I’ll be posting stories and pictures over the next several days.

The Cast of Characters: Kurt and I went backpacking with his grad school friend Dana and her two daughters, Sarah and Molly. We also took Cora along for her first backpacking/ back country camping trip ever. We bought her a doggy backpack so she could carry her own food and water.

The Route: We took the Cirque Meadow trail in the Roosevelt National Forest to (where else?) Cirque Meadow. It was stunning and made for an ideal camping spot. Here’s the meadow with Comanche Peak in the background:

Here’s my tiny two-man tent and Kurt’s backpack:

Here’s Dana’s three-man tent, with Sarah and Molly inside, reading. Kurt and I had serious tent envy. Not only did we like the design of their tent, but it was twice the size of ours and one-fourth of the weight! I think we’ll be buying one of our own very soon.

Kurt, Cora, and I enjoyed our outdoor time together. Here we are having breakfast on Friday morning before making a day hike up to Emmaline and Cirque Lakes.

The Destination: Emmaline Lake. It was our plan all along to hike up into the mountains to see Emmaline Lake. Dana picked the destination from a slew of suggestions given to us by a well-informed National Forest Service ranger at the local info center. The full story of this hike will be in a later post, but to give you a tiny taste of the beauty we discovered at the end of the trail, here’s a picture: