Leavenworth Camping Trip Part 1

Our annual camping trip with friends and family this year was our longest yet - we stayed for ten days and even that didn't seem long enough. We started our trip with this super long list of things we wanted to see, do, try, explore, find and enjoy... we hit only a few of those items making time to just enjoy camp as well. We came to the realization that the particular camp site we stayed at wasn't just a camp site but rather a base for the area we really wanted to enjoy.

We stayed at Tumwater Campground just outside of Leavenworth. This was a great campground that we would enjoy again. The campground is huge offering sites both for a quick night over and enjoyment on the river. We did luck out and enjoy the river all week while camping, which was really nice as the weather was hot... some days reaching close to one-hundred. Being in the mountains and near water helped to keep the warmth reasonable.

While camping we enjoyed many outings on hikes and to town. One walk was to an alpine lake called Hidden Lake, just above Lake Wenatchee. The walk was just under a mile, perfect for kids. The lake was beautiful!!! We hiked up and enjoy some refreshing water play.

Denny Creek Camping Trip

Last week we enjoyed a ten day camping trip out at Denny Creek in the Snoqualmie area. This was our first time at this campground. It was a lovely little campground, however you can hear the road noise from I-90 - a bit too much for us. The area is beautiful and offers so, so many opportunities for outdoor fun & hiking! We enjoyed several hikes throughout the week - Franklin Falls, Denny Creek Water Slides, Wagon Trail Hike, Lake Talapus & Lake Ollalie and then Bryan and the kids enjoyed the Iron Horse Snoqualmie Train Tunnel and hike. Over all about 18 miles of hiking happend this past week.... AWESOME!!!

As well we enjoyed wonderful company camping, a ton of play with friends, river play, forest service roads, general camping goodness like star gazing, great foods and campfire endings to the day. The weather was amazing all week long offering us nothing but pure sunshine, how lucky we were!

There are just TOO MANY photos to share, so I selected just a few to share of our trip... I had over 200 photos, and that is light for me! Enjoy!!!



Getting ready for our first hike to Franklin Falls.



River along trail to Franklin Falls.

River along hike.

Mini-waterslide.

Pierce Family in front of Franklin Falls.

Hudson exploring at Denny Creek Waterslides.

Denny Creek Waterslides.

Fajitas -- the best camp dinner ever!!!

Corn bread pudding went great with fajitas! Yummy!

River along campground.

Heading out to place their first ever geo cache, so fun!

Holly enjoying daisies at Snoqualmie Pass.

Hudson too!

Snoqualmie Train Tunnel - start of a 6 mile hike.

The tunnel is DARK - 2 miles of darkness! Wow!

Heading out on a 6 mile hike to some alpine lakes!

On the trail...

Beautiful area!

In front of a small falls along hike!

Aren't they the cutest!!! Love them!

Talupus Lake - 2 mile mark.

Talupus Lake.

Ollalie Lake - 3 mile mark.

Stampede Pass drive.

Middle Fork Campground

This past weekend we enjoyed a camping trip up at a brand new to us campground called Middle Fork. We are thrilled that we ventured out in trying a new place... it was fantastic! Middle Fork was down a 12 mile stretch of gravel forest service road - far out and wonderfully located in the middle of no where. However, for being so far out it was well traveled by so many coming out to enjoy the beautiful region, hikes, mountain biking, river kayaking, fishing and more. The area offered so many easily accessible opportunities. And, the campground was well maintained for being so far out - a treat!


Friday we arrived, set up camp and enjoyed the local area with a nature walk and exploring the river some. The kids had a great time finding where they could play at camp, roasting marshmallows and soaking in nature. Saturday we ventured out to explore more of the area and to take in a little hike at Twin Falls - beautiful! We also explored Denny Creek a bit and hit up Snoqualmie Pass for some ice cream in the warm sunshine. Sunday we packed up, had the Ross family visit us and headed back up to Denny Creek with the Ross family to explore a bit more. We are about to head out on a long camping trip there with a lot of folks, it should be a lot of fun!!!


We had a wonderful weekend!