Matt's Backpacking Weekend

I was informed by my wife that it wouldn't make much sense for her to write a blog post about my weekend, so today's post is guest-written by me (Matt). I'm sure you're excited.

Anyway, one of my friends at work is a pretty outdoorsy kind of guy, so he invited me and another coworker to go for a short overnight backpacking trip this past weekend. We headed west from Fort Collins to the Rawah Wilderness for a trek up to Twin Crater Lakes. Anyway, I'll just get right to it.

Joe (who matched WAY too well for a backpacking trip) and his dog Katie, who made an appearance back here.

Katie wasn't much of a fan of crossing the narrow bridges along the trail, so she opted for a less dry approach.

Katie crossing the stream.

Even in July, there's plenty of snow to be found up above 11,000' or so. However, it's always melting, which makes for some pretty cool formations.

A snow bridge along the way.

After about 4 hours and 7 or so miles, we arrived at our destination. This is one of the two "twin" lakes, though you can just see the back lake as well if you look really closely.

Twin Crater Lakes

Dave's quite the photographer, so we had a number of photo stops during the trip.

Dave doin' his thing.

Dave wanted to catch the sunrise to get some shots, so we woke up at around 5am. I managed to drag myself out of bed and get a couple decent shots myself (though I'm looking forward to seeing how Dave's turned out).

A mountain about 30 minutes before sunrise. You might need to up the brightness/contrast on your screen to see this one, but it's one of my favorites.

Sunrise over the valley.

We didn't waste any time and promptly got on the trail heading back down.

Our campsite was right in the middle of this pic. It was about the flattest area we could find.

Pretty cool cascade on the way down.

A few bluebells in an aspen grove near the trailhead. Figured Kelly would enjoy this one.

Anyway, that was the trip. Weekends in the mountains certainly make it hard not to like Colorado!