Harper Family Highlights: Takh Lakh Lake

Our last vacation before school began was a camping trip to Takh Lakh Lake. We went with our friends, the Huillets, who we have known forever. Okay, not quite forever, but it seems like it. Karin was my roommate at BYU, and then after we both got married, our husbands went to medical school together. We haven't always lived in the same places over the years, but we've always managed to see each other fairly regularly and now we are lucky enought to live only about 45 minutes away from them. We have kids the same ages, who love to play together. We've been planning a camping trip together for the last two and a half years, but it took until now for it to happen. Two years ago, we moved here and then I had a baby a few weeks later, and last summer both our husbands were deployed. So this summer, it finally happened. And it was so great! The Huillets took us to one of their favorite camping spots, Takh Lakh Lake. It is right in the shadow of Mt. Adams, and truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Don't you agree?

We had a few setbacks at the beginning. Our platform trailor on which we had all our gear, broke after we hit a bump in the road. As a result, we had to unload all our stuff on the side of the road and reload it into the back of the Huillet's truck (thankfully, they had room since they drove two vehicles). The next problem was our campsite, which had been booked ahead of time online, was occupied when we got there. There was some mix-up with the campground, and so we couldn't get in until the next day. Luckily, the campsites were large, so we just set up our tent in Huillet's campsite and then moved into our own campsite next door the following day. We also had rain that first night. That first night as I lay in the tent listening to it rain, unable to sleep because I was freezing, and William was laying on my face (he wouldn't stay sleeping in his portacrib), I decided I officially hated camping. But, the sun rose the next day, and we all had such a good time, that I changed my mind. I still don't love the sleeping part of camping, (or the dirt... or the outhouses...or the mosquitoes...or the dirt--did I say that already?) but there are lots of great things about it, that it is worth putting up with some of the inconviences...for a while.

Despite the setbacks, it was a super fun week. The Huillets have a canoe and three kayaks, so we all spent a lot of time on the lake. It was a perfect size lake--not too big, but big enough, and not too deep, but deep enough. There was canoeing, kayaking, fishing, jumping off the boats into the lake, and lots of swimming. I even went for a swim one day.

William's favorite thing to do was throw rocks into the water. There wasn't actually too many rocks down by the lake, so whenever he would find one in the campground or on the road, he would insist on going to throw it into the lake. "Rock in the water" he would say, over and over until one of us obliged. But since we had a site right on the lake, it wasn't too far to go.

This camping trip was the perfect mix of swimming, boating, hiking, eating good food, playing games, and relaxing.

One night we cooked corn on the cob over the fire. That was a first for me, but it was easy and they turned out so juicy. I think we will be trying this at home. We had lots of other yummy food. David did ribs in the dutch oven and Karin and Adam made a yummy dutch oven cobbler. And as David put it when referring to camping, "The sleeping is bad enough that the eating has to be good."

I kept going back to take pictures of the mountain and the lake. It was truly breathtaking, especially as it was getting close to sunset. When it got really dark, we would go down to the lake and look at the stars. There were so many stars in the sky and they even reflected off the lake. I've never actually seen that in real life--only in animated movies I think. The last night we were there, David and I took the canoe out in the lake in the dark and saw the whole sky full of stars. Very beautiful.

One morning we went on a hike. We went up to this cool lava flow with these giant boulders. This lava flow came from Mt. Adams 3500 years ago, so geologists say it is a relatively new lava flow.

From the top we could see Mt. Rainier,

and Mt. Adams.

If it wasn't for the billion mosqitoes, this meadow would have been cool to explore. But it was pretty marshy, and the mosquitoes were thriving.

David was awesome, carrying William on his back and Rebekah on his shoulders for some of the hike.

We found some snow. Ben was the recipient of the snowballs that were made. He loved it of course, since it was quite warm. Look at the little flower trying to bloom through the snow.