Day 59: Out of Red’s Meadow and Snow

Miles hiked: 19.3

Mile marker: 927.2

We grab breakfast at the restaurant again. This time I get a coffee, burrito, and French toast. Delicious. I’m packing out half of my food. We spend an hour looking at photos and showing them with one another.

The time comes too soon to leave. I know we should have left earlier, but it was nice sharing our lives outside of the backpacking world to one another.

I lay my two pieces of French toast on some aluminum foil. I drizzle syrup over it. Yum. It looks ridiculous, but I bet it will be great!

We head to trail. We don’t get very far when Dad points out the long hexagon rocks that reach to the sky. They’re like columns!

We cross a bridge and the mountains open up beautifully. It’s a green field with a background of tall trees and mountains.

Dad shows me a new stone flower that looks like rustic yellow and red succulents growing from the rocks.

It looks like a Bob Ross destination out here. The sky is blue with puffy white clouds. A giant hill is in front of me. Trees are scattered everywhere.

Dad is jingling in front of me. His bell rings loudly through the forest as we walk. I follow behind him as we go up and the mountains are displayed next to us.

We reach red and orange rock, as if an artist dropped their paint all over the rocks! The fluorescent yellowish green bushes scream from the rocks and the mountains are singing in front of us.

We have lunch here. It’s windy and a bit cold. Luxy cuts her cheese with what we call her “shanking knife,” since it’s a six inch blade with a wooden handle. She enjoys all the good cheese out here!

Dad identifies plants as we walk.

We reach a meadow of sorts. It slopes downhill. Wild flowers are everywhere. The mountains stand beside us and this is one of my favorite sections on trail!

Too bad it lasted a short time!

We reach a beautiful lake surrounded by snowy mountains. Puffy clouds float in the sky. In fact, the clouds look a bit heavy so we’re hoping that we won’t run into that. The clouds are massive and hugging one another in white and gray color.

We hike on a bit more and stay at a place Savannah stayed at when she did the JMT. We cross a river and have to partner up in tents due to lack of space. Three of us have two person tents.

The girls have gone to bathe in the river when it begins to snow.

I’m already in my tent and the ice pellets sound like weapons against my tent. At least I’m dry! We intended on hiking a mile more to Rush creek.

I’m glad we stopped here!