camping at Hazard Lake - 2012.

We've been going to Hazard Lake for years.  You may remember last year.  Quite a ball!  This year was no exception.  I wasn't working the day we left, and Kurtis took a half day.  We thought that would give us plenty of time to beat the crowds to the hills.  Nope!  There was a fire near Banks that closed Hwy 55, which brought everyone to our favorite, normally quiet northbound Hwy 95.  By the time we got to the lake (after a 22 mile dirt road and an impatient 1.5 year old), the campground was FULL!  Quite dissappointing!  But we drove up the road a little ways and found a small area with a fire ring and snagged it!  We set up camp and one of us promptly did a faceplant and was covered in the most disgusting moon dust/floury/powdery dirt EVER!  Such is the life of a camper!

Kurtis' friend Brian and his son Connor joined us later that evening.  We just hung around camp that night and enjoyed the stunning mountain stars!

The next day, we hiked in to a little lake called Rainbow Lake.  It was just a 3 mile hike in, which made it fairly easy packing little Clara on our backs.  (We did alternate though, I packed her in, and Kurtis packed her out!)  We fished, and ate lunch at the lake, and after a few hours headed back out.  It was a great little day trip!

Aren't those little size 5 hiking boots the cutest things you've ever seen!  Thanks Busch family for the killer hand-me-downs!!!

Here are Connor and I at the fork in the trail where we turned left to head to the lake.

Clara was a gem and slept on the way in and on the way out!

The only bad thing about this particular trail is that it was covered with the same, icky dusty dirt as our campsite!  When we got back, we were completely covered in it.  So, we headed down to a tiny creek below our campsite and scrubbed up a bit!  Clara loved it because the creek was just her size!  She even drank some of that cold, mountain stream water...which made her mother flip!  All I could think was that she'd wake up in the night with the explosive diarrhea that comes with giardia.  We lucked out, thankfully, so the fun in the creek was worth it!

Later that night, Clara played in the tent trailer (thanks Jeff and Janet for letting us use it!), and had a nice bath.  However, being clean doesn't last long.

This is her the next morning...another face plant and she was a mess all over again!  Oh well...that's what the bathtub at home is for!

The highlights of this trip were the fun in the creek, the incredible meteor showers Saturday night- our view from the mountains was breathtaking, and watching a fire helicopter dunk into the Payetter river and suck water up its hose and then take off RIGHT NEXT TO US as we drove past him near Banks.  Oh, and we also got to see Uncle Brian in McCall, have lunch with him on the lake, and check out his sweet new pad!  She talked about Uncle Brian and the cat that frequents the outside of his apartment for days..."Bri...MEOW".  It was a fantastic weekend enjoying the beautiful place we call home!