A weekend away in the mountains.

Sometimes I need to get away.

It's not that I have the most stressful life. Lord knows, I don't. But when you drink coffee here--beside a creek with a mountain view--it tastes richer. The sun feels different on your skin, warm relief from the chilly morning air.  The water tumbling down the river sings you awake.

 We live in the Rockies now. People come from all over the world to see these mountains.

The sun is still summer warm and the days are long. Part of me wishes it could last forever. But I think knowing fall is just around the bend makes getting out and about more urgent. You can't put it off. It's now or never (or next year, at least.)

 One of these cowboys was an ex-park ranger. He encouraged us to get off trail.

 Which led us here. To this hidden lake. Hidden Lake of Heaven, I think I'll call it.

Replete with a little fairy waterfall. 

We spent all day just. Soaking it in.

I feel so humble in the mountains. They remind me that I am here. And that that is enough.

Sunrise. 

Our little MSR is like a second home. (and this was possibly our favorite campsite ever.) 

The weekend before was a tough one for me. Someone I love very much had a stroke. He loves the mountains and was a great adventurer. In fact, my family has a long history in this very mountain range. 



It's overwhelming sometimes, isn't it? How joy and sadness and love and fear somehow share the same space in your heart? 

Life is so short, Friends. We say it all the time, but it's true. I think for me it's about the Hidden Lakes of Heaven.

And love, of course. 

(For anyone curious, we camped at Mosquito Creek backcountry campground in Banff on night one. About a three mile hike in. We then hiked to the top of Molar Pass. We had reservations to camp at Molar Creek but the aforementioned ex-park ranger told us we'd be ok if we camped on the Pass so long as we were smart and low impact. So that's what we did.)