in the forest, part 3: the hills are alive

you know how the sound of music opens with epic aerial shots from what i am assuming are the mountains between austria and switzerland? and then the music swells and there's maria von trapp, doing a slow twirl in the middle of this open meadow, arms practically flapping to embrace the gorgeousness that surrounds her?

i've always wanted to be there.

i've always wanted to do that.

on the third day of our stay in the forest, we drove up a winding mountain road to behold a sub alpine meadow.

on the way up, we stopped at cascade lookout.

zooming in on lightning lake from the lookout
photo by ms. t* 

i love this photo. i love these kids all together.

gophers everywhere

the mountains seem to go on forever. british columbia really is beautiful. 

when we got to our hiking trail, we feasted our eyes on all that the alpine meadows had to offer (the link is from the resort page - which we definitely did not stay at).

i don't think i spoke a coherent sentence while we were up there. i wanted to drop everything, twirl forever, and channeling julie andrews, just sing! only i don't think that these hills deserved such a sound. the mountain silence was enough. also, we weren't allowed to stray from the trail. and the children were hungry and tired. and we forgot to bring the baby carrier. and it would not be an exageration to say that there were so many bugs. if i'd open my mouth long enough to attempt to sing about the hills being alive, i think a few of them would have flown into my mouth with joy in their hearts (which had already happened at the lake, so i wasn't willing to risk it again).

but boy was i enamoured with the landscape.

and i had such a crush on these flowers. dr. seuss must have come to a place like this. don't they look like something out of horton hears a who? or the lorax (the inspiration for truffula flowers perhaps)?  

apparently, some of these alpine flowers take 25 years to bloom.

i petted one of them and they are super soft. 

and there was no wind. so it's a wonder that they look to be in constant blown motion.

but for the halo of insects i developed while on the trail, i would have plunked myself down in the middle of it all and sketched for hours. i don't even think i photographed the place properly, i was swat dancing so vigorously. 

i have dreams of camping out there someday, just to buy myself the time to really take it all in.

until then, i'll be over here. doing slow mountain twirls amid fields of fuzzy flowers, in costume, as maria von trapp. all in my head. 

i know, in yesterday's post i was 12. today, i think i'm 16 going on 17 (ahem). but tomorrow, i'll be back for the final instalment of the in the forest series, "in the forest, part 4: knitting in the wild."