As summer came to a close, I couldn't wait to get back to Boulder to start up my sophomore year at the University of Colorado with a new major decided and as a new officer in the Hiking Club. My first week was incredibly chaotic— first day of classes, countless meetings and catching up with friends who I hadn't seen all summer. I was planning on saving my first weekend to get myself together and settle into my new house with a few roommates.
At the Hiking Club's first potluck party of the semester, I was talked into joining the club's first backpacking trip of the season. Instead of organizing my life, I would be driving to Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming with a group of nine friends for a 27ish mile hike through the backcountry of the newest range in the continental United States. It didn't take much to convince me.
Less than a week later, I left our campsite in Alaska Basin with a friend to go refill water bottles before it got dark. The sunset was absolutely incredible, illuminating the stream, flowers and peaks with a beautiful pink light. I forgot to grab my camera, so I had to soak in the scenery without capturing it into a photo—which is pretty hard for me. My friend and I watched the sun sink lower and the colors disappear, continued to fill the hand full of bottles and chatted about our love for the wilderness.
The next morning, the ten of us packed up our campsite during sunrise and began our last day of hiking. We stopped along the same stream as the night before and refilled our water bottles (all adorned with hiking club stickers of course) before continuing on. After helping set up the water filter, I grabbed my camera from my pack and began shooting. It was especially hazy on this morning from the smoke of Montana's wildfires. While the smoke gave a few of us trouble while climbing over passes, it definitely added to the sunrise colors that were cast over the range.
I snapped a few shots and sat down in a field of flowers and listened to the sounds of the fresh mountain water gushing over the streambed's rocks. Always my favorite sound, I had listened to rivers all summer, from the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon to Clear Creek in Idaho Springs, CO. I had missed this river sound since my last day of work over two weeks ago, and was so glad to hear it again. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and then stood up to join my friends on our final stretch of trails back to our cars, and back to Boulder.