Alta Mountain, Alta Mountain Tarns, Lila Lake & Rachel Lake — Monday, Jul. 22, 2024

This was supposed to be a two night trip, but the mosquitoes chased us out of there a day early. These are some DEET resistant hybrid alien mosquitoes or something. They only started biting this morning after the wind died down and I am covered in bites. Poor Daisy was miserable so I just decided to pack up after we summited Alta Mountain early this morning while there was still a good breeze.

When we arrived Monday morning there were only a few cars in the lot. There were no pens in the register and I didn't have one so I couldn't sign a permit. Off we went. It took us just under 2 hours to get up to Rachel Lake. There are a couple of trees across the trail in the meadow areas that didn't really bother me on the way in, but coming out when I was so completely exhausted and had fallen down once already, was bleeding, and was still carrying our pack for two nights, I wasn't sure I would make it over the two logs. It would be awesome if they were removed at some point. 

When we got to Rachel Lake we paused a moment and Daisy got some water and took a brief swim, then we headed on up Rampart Ridge to our destination for camping somewhere around Lila Lakes. It was extremely windy and there were low clouds and fog with some rain now and then, and also some sun breaks. I picked a campsite high in the middle up above Lila Lakes and began the super fun challenge of setting up the tent in a windstorm by myself. It was quite a comedy show, let me tell you. Finally I got us all situated and held our tent down extra well with nearby rocks at each corner on top of the stakes. I couldn't do anything about it nearly buckling though. 

Daisy was a little freaked out but we were hungry so I fed her and we watched the fog blowing all over HiBox Mountain and Lila Lakes. It was gorgeous. I was really glad I threw my puffy in at the last minute but I really actually enjoyed the wind keeping us free of bugs. It was a little hard to sleep with all the noise, I kept reassuring Daisy it would get better overnight.

When we woke this morning it was still blowing. So I had coffee and Daisy breakfast and then we went and summited Alta Mountain, while it was nice and cool and all of those clouds were blowing around beautifully. My mind was blown. And Daisy has become quite the little Mountain goat. I never had to help her at all. There are usually two places on the way to the summit that she needs my help, but not anymore I guess. 

When we were heading down from the summit the wind was becoming less and the sun was becoming more. We arrived back at camp and I was roasting. It was only like 9am. We tried to relax and get comfy but Daisy doesn't like to lay inside the tent and she was absolutely miserable with the bugs, and so was I because I wasn't going to close the tent door and leave her outside. So I swear there were 30 mosquitoes flying around in my tent within 10 minutes. 

We tried to tolerate it for a couple hours. I did NOT want to come home today. But it was just obnoxious. I have more bites than I can count. I finally just looked at Daisy and said, "Do you want to just go home right now?" And she got all excited. 

So I packed up all of our stuff, not in tornado wind, but while being eaten alive by mosquitoes. 😂 Hard to believe it was still an amazing trip. Any time away from the city is time well spent. 

Wildflowers are beautiful right now, everything was snow free, we saw maybe 20 people the whole time and everyone + dogs were super nice. The road is great, just a little washboard on the uphill parts. 

Happy hiking! Be safe!