One of our favourite places to visit is Courtright Reservoir at 8,170
feet in the Sierra National Forest, in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range,
bordering the John Muir Wilderness. It's a beautiful location with wonderful granite domes rising out of a majestic reservoir.
It's a magical place that always surprises us every time we visit: great camping, great backcountry hiking and rock-climbing, and a "pristine" and "untouched" feel.
On this trip a surprise thunderstorm made things FUN. An important lesson in camping (generally) and especially with kids is to GO WITH THE FLOW. Don't fight the dirt, the weather, the gear....go with it. Keep it light and make fun out of everything.
One of my favourite parts of camping with our kids is watching them become fully present to a place. On this particular morning, they found a rock to eat their breakfast and watch the sunrise.
The day-times offer all sorts of adventures. We love to "scramble" as a family. Scrambling is finding a summit that requires the use of hands and feet to ascend...but isn't so difficult that you would need to use ropes to ensure safety in the event of a fall. That being said...scrambling can be dangerous because it's still steep terrain. Our kids have grown up climbing and hiking and we are HARDCORE about safety in our family...so we never take summits of any kind lightly.
Our objective for the day was this ^^
It was long hike in to the base of the dome...but it was worth it. Beautiful granite slabs kept us motivated.
But...this particular day wasn't our summit day. We got about half-way up the dome and saw the weather beginning to change. It was a valuable lesson for our kids -- even though we had a goal to get to the top, we couldn't let that goal get in the way of our first goal: stay aware and make safe decisions.
The descent was just as fun as the ascent.
Back at the lake we watched the rain roll in and we enjoyed putting our feet in the lake to welcome it's arrival once again.
These are good days.
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