The landscape scenery is as impressive as we read it was. Jagged peaks surrounded by mountain rivers and lakes are one of my favorite environments in the world – at least during the summer. During the winter, they’re beautiful to look at, but living in that much isolation, darkness and snow for months on end isn’t something I’m entirely sure I would want to do again as a normal way of life.

We camped at Stanley Lake Inlet campground. The campground was nearly full on a Tuesday night, so I can only imagine how full it would be on a weekend. When we left on Thursday someone was already waiting for us to go at 10 in the morning.  We lucked out though when we got there and got a spot right next to the lake. The only downside to the spot was there weren’t a lot of trees for privacy, but our neighbors turned out to be very nice, and there were even some kids for Geneveve to play with once she got past the initial introductions, which don’t actually involve exchanging names mostly just walking up and saying “you wanna play?”

This is actually the first place we’ve been that was remote enough not to have Internet available somehow.   In fact, I realized this might be the first time I’ve been out of Internet range for multiple days in a few years. It’s very nice, but not as big a deal as I would think. Often when I’m in range of Internet but traveling or basically anywhere not at home I’m only using the Internet to check on things that are essential to what I’m doing like getting directions or looking up weather. I’ve never been someone who is constantly surfing or checking twitter and/or facebook while doing other things, but my job has me on the Internet all day. Even so, I think taking a break from the Internet occasionally is a healthy thing to do, but more and more it’s something that’s going to have to be self imposed since mobile internet access is becoming available all over.

One thing I wish we had room for on this trip is some sort of water craft. We’ve got some inflatable tubes, but I think all of us in the family are all jealous of the families who have kayaks, paddle boards, jet skis and boats when they go camping. Even if we had room for such things, Xena is definitely too young and Geneveve probably is given her skill level in the water. However, the idea of one day getting a boat one day has come up repeatedly on this trip when it never has before. We’ll see what comes of that idea since I’ve always thought a boat was just a giant money pit, but it’s hard to argue with how fun they are for a gorgeous summer day at the lake.

Sleeping in a tent has settled into a routine and is going pretty well at this point. Xena isn’t waking up screaming anymore, and we’ve found that bundling her extremely well and adding a small sheet on top of her ridge rest so she can’t feel the ridges both seem to help a lot with keeping her asleep. It gets cold at night up in the mountains, so much so that our 3 season bags don’t cut it by themselves and we all have to bundle up before getting into the bag. Geneveve somehow seems to sleep incredibly warm and is constantly kicking off her bag even when it’s barely 50 degrees outside, which is weird since she’s not a warm person during the day. Our dog Ubu is a trooper and curls up into a tight little ball for the whole night. One night we forgot to cover her and she was shivering when we woke up, but she never complains.

The stargazing has been phenomenal. I always love being able to see the Milky Way stripe so clearly, and there’s been a lot of meteors streaking the sky. I’ve got Google Sky Maps on my phone, which has been a lot of fun just point at a star and know what it is and what constellation it’s part of.  It’s a great campfire activity, the only downside is that it gets dark so late that sometimes it’s hard to stay awake long enough after a full day outside to see the stars.

After a few lazy lake days here we’re heading to Craters of the Moon. It’s not in keeping with our current trend of mountain lakes, and again not the fastest route to get us back to our southbound trajectory, but it looks too interesting to pass up.