Camping in Paradise

For Labor Day, I met some good friends from Wyoming for a weekend of camping in Paradise Valley, a ruggedly mountainous area north of Yellowstone and south of Livingston, Montana. We enjoyed percolated camp coffee, great meals grilled over open flame, crawling into warm sleeping bags to enjoy the cool, fall nights, and scenic hikes straight out of our campground. We also introduced baby Lane to the delights -- and challenges -- of outdoor living as he experienced the coziness of a baby-sized sleeping bag and the frigidness of a mountain rain storm turned snow storm that flooded tents, soaked bags, and sent even the hardest of hard-core campers scrambling for a hotel room. It was a great weekend as any weekend is when spent in the company of beloved friends.

Sarah tucks baby Lane into his baby sleeping bag. He is going to grow up and be a ruggedly handsome outdoorsy man.

Dave grilled us some brats and peppers and tomatoes. MmmHmmm...

All-American camping family.

Lane hitching a hike to Pine Creek Falls.

Pine Creek Falls tumbled down in misty brilliance just a mile hike from our camp site.

After enjoying the falls, Becky and I continued hiking towards Pine Creek Lake, another four miles further and 3,000 feet higher. We didn't quite make it due to time constraint and this sudden mountain thunderstorm rolling in.

Aunt Becky with a warm and cuddly baby Lane.

On our second to last day, we left our camp site to go enjoy nearby Chico Hot Springs and some Bozeman coffee shops.

On our way back from Bozeman, we saw snow rolling into Paradise Valley and decided another night in the cold may not be so good for Lane. We booked a hotel room. Shortly thereafter, we got back to our camp site and discovered the pouring rains had flooded one of our tents and soaked our sleeping bags. With temps hovering around 35 degrees and snow only a few hundred feet up the mountain, we were glad we opted for warm and dry in Livingston.

As we drove out of the valley, the setting sun drenched the landscape in glowing hues of gold. We stopped to enjoy the sight together.

And we took lots of pictures -- of the beautiful land and of our beautiful friends.