After our big hike at Paradise on Mt. Rainier we decided to check out Reflection Lake. The lake sits near the cross section of the Wonderland Trail and the Lower Lakes Trail. What makes this spot so popular is how on a clear day you can catch a perfect reflection of the mountain in the lake water. Unfortunately for us the wind was causing the water to be choppy, so we were unable to get a good picture.

Even so, the area is a beautiful spot to explore. The trails around the lake make for easy hiking so we let Catarina out of her pack so she could wander around. Usually she prefers to hold our hand while she hikes, but I think she’d had about enough of us because she was going full speed ahead without so much as a glance in our direction. Of course she learned the dangers of running on a hiking trail real quick! She tripped over one of the stones meant to outline the pathway and ended up flying face first into the dirt. After some coddling from mommy she seemed to be fine and we decided to keep moving.

During our drive back home, while Catarina was snoring away in her car seat (I’m not joking she was actually full-on, grown man soring) Craig and I started to talk about our future trips with a much older Catarina. We like to imagine our futures full of weekend trips to the mountains or on the beach, hiking, camping and just exploring the world around us.

We aren’t rich. We don’t have the kind of money where we can fly to Hawaii or Europe or even Disney Land. Our adventures are closer to home, but that’s OK because we live in such a beautiful place where nothing gets old. And as Catarina gets older I’d like her to make the connection between huffing up a steep mountain trail to quality time with the family. Maybe when she gets older and she starts going on outdoors trips without mom and dad she will recall memories of when she was a little girl running alongside a lake with the castle in the clouds looking down on her.

That’s my hope.

I also hope she blocks out the part where she ate it in the dusty ground underneath said castle and how mommy had to stifle her laugh so she could scoop her up.

This blog has a great photo of Reflection Lake that we were unable to capture. Also Travels ‘N’ Trails has some great pics of her trip to Paradise.

– Veronica Sandate Craker