Spanish Peaks

After being in Colorado and then going back to Rapid to see the folks and my sister and brother-in-law, I made my way back to Bozeman to start classes. We started extra early. We go through an intensive math course covering matrix algebra, linear algebra, and a lot of calculus. After living in my car while going to class I decided it might be time to just get another camping trip in while I'm homeless anyways. So a week after classes officially started, Jared, Carson, Molly (Jared's dog) and I made our way up in the Spanish Peaks just south of Bozeman.
This was about as uneventful as trips get, but the Spanish Peaks are majestic and quite a tantalizing landscape. Sharp peaks are everywhere, and yet at the same time you hike through lush landscape. We did a fairly easy hike that was roughly 7 miles in. We hiked right along a river the whole way in and eventually came across the tributary lake. This is where we camped. We went out for just a night, but it was amazing. The trail is a fairly flat hike most of the way and then the last two miles start uphill. The peaks start getting closer together and we slowly made our way in between what looked like a saddle between two peaks. When you start getting close, there are a few small waterfalls, and as you finally crest the hill, you notice you're walking into a huge cirque! It's amazing when you walk up because you don't know where you're going really. Sure we have a topo map, but that doesn't show the beauty you walk into. The first thing you notice is the cirque, and then all of a sudden you notice you're standing next to a small lake. That would be our campsite that night.
We set our bags down, filled up with water and ran around the area. It was great, you could see these huge boulders across the small valley and as you get closer these things are actually huge! We continued to check out the boulders and stare down into the vast valley.
That night Jared, Molly, and Carson stayed in Carson's new tent (which is sweet by the way) and I stayed in my sleeping bag and space blanket. Just to my luck, later that night was the area's first snow. There I am with just a space blanket covering me and it starts to slowly snow and then the fog moved in and then it started snowing even more. That was about 4 or 5 in the morning. A nice little wake up really. And if we add to it that Jared let Molly out to throw up and then got excited I was there at which point she came and licked me. I was getting licked by a dog that had just thrown up. I was trying to avoid her, but I was in a mummy bag and couldn't get my arms up to shield my face. Aside from being a little wet and cold, the trip was great and I got to see another area I had been dying to see.
Another check off my to do list. It doesn't get any better than this.