Lake Serene & Bridal Veil Falls

After the SQUAD's Golden Gardens outing, we all went home and got some sleep, then the next morning met up bright and early at 6 am for some hiking. The destination: Lake Serene (as if you didn't gather that from the post title). Lake Serene has been talked about for a while now and we were really excited to go.

Only an hour long drive on a Friday morning we arrived around 7:30 am to an empty parking lot and a sunny sky. Somehow we lucked out with the weather since 12 hours ago the forecast pretty much screamed it's gonna be a wet hike.

Jazzed about the being the first people there and the weather, we hit the trail.

We took the half mile detour to Bridal Veil Falls and  were disappointed by all of these stairs...

...but the falls were pretty good.

I spy a wild Crystal.

After a sweaty hike up here, these falls were refreshing.

Candid Polly.

Crystal brought her Polaroid and the pictures turned out really well!

Squad selfie

Sharon wandering.

And back to the trail we went, preparing ourselves for the steady incline to Lake Serene.

Oh look, another damn bridge.

Did we really go hiking if we didn't get candid black and white pictures of Crystal laughing?

Very grateful for these pals.

Along the way was a mini waterfall, but clearly more jagged and geometric.

Look who we found on the trail!

Probably the coolest tree ever, completely covered in moss.

Taking a break. Originally I had looked at the map and saw 6 switchbacks. Well 6 quickly turned into 10 and then into 15 and then we realized that there were actually 23 switchbacks on the steady incline.

At every corner we rounded we expected to see the lake.

AND WE FINALLY MADE IT

Keep Exploring

We explored the area and followed a trail around the lake up to this look out point.

And then down to the lunch lookout.

I made a friend!!!!

Photo credit: Hunter // finally a decent picture of the girls!

I spy some hammocks & Aaron.

Depending on where you were, the lake looked aquamarine blue.

Photo credit: Polly (aka Polly's camera timer)

Probably the best group picture ever.

Polly....you're taking pictures in the wrong direction

We returned to our hammocks and devoured our lunch. I had some trouble getting into my hammock which was documented very well by Polly and Hunter.

Aaron seemed pretty content in his.

Same with Crystal and Sharon.

Photo credit: Hunter

A seriously rad day spent with some of my favorite people. I am very thankful to for these friends and that we all have similar interests and humor. They definitely made Winter Quarter more enjoyable.

We headed back down the trail after relaxing at the lake for an hour. The way down almost felt longer than the way up, but again we timed it perfectly with the weather and the rain started right was we got to the car.

A long trip like that isn't complete without a frosty, so we stopped off at Wendy's for some grub and headed back home. The perfect way to end the great day.

If you'd like to see some different perspectives and style of photography, check out Hunter's content: Blog & Video (definitely watch the video, it is so funny and well done!)