Our second day backpacking was a lot easier than expected.  We were looking at getting 5 miles max a day now, due to the first grueling day, but fortunately, we were out of the brush and onto the tundra.  There are a few drawbacks on this terrain though, higher elevation, softer ground, and still exhausting.  We were able to make it to Turquoise Lake after a 7.33 mile hike and hiking between 2,800 to 3,200 feet in elevation.

We set off first thing in the morning, as always I wake up to see if there will be any interesting shots for sunrise.  Although there wasn’t a lot of color, there were still some dramatic skies to capture.  The stream below was our last major obstacle the day before, and from this angle, it looked just so far away!

And we said goodbye to Telaquana, and set off on our journey to who knows where!  As seen before, we attempted straight paths to make navigation easier, and for this terrain, we were fortunate not to have to avoid peaks or valleys, just relatively gradual elevation gains.

As always, I was looking for the right angle of the lake, so I always take a little too much of the same angle.

Melody, well rested and ready to go!

And our last view of the lake, before we were hiking in the deserted tundra.

Up and up we go, until we could finally reach the plateau between Telaquana and Turquoise lake.

Through out the tundra, there was a lot of streams running through that we had to cross.  This made for an unpleasant experience with soaked boots.

And we reached the plateau, where we hiked for what seemed like hours on terrain like this, which one on for as far as we could see.

It was similar to hiking in a desert like environment, flat and continuously the same landscape.  Atlas we had the beautiful mountains as a backdrop.

And more of Melody, on our 9 hour hike.

The most fascinating part was, the ground looked like it was covered in some sort of vegetation, but what was really underneath were these rocks. Our steps were pretty tricky, not knowing if we would fall into a knee high hole full of water, or actually hit the ground.  This proved to be a slower pace, but way better than the day before.

And some more of the stream crossing, that come from the snow melt on the mountains beside us.

We ended up stopping to get some water and a view!

We definitely had plenty of these, a quick stop for some food and much needed rest.

The interesting terrain we hiked through, valleys and troughs of water and grass.  Slowly we had to really be careful on our steps to keep our boots as dry as possible and to reduce the amount of energy needed to walk.

Melody taking a nap, after a long and steady day.

As we approached Turquoise Lake, we started getting terrain that was rockier and rockier.  The weather was beginning to turn more as well, and we were hoping for a dry day out of this.

We made to to Turquoise Lake, as the clouds filled the skies.  We looked to quickly setup in case of any precipitation that may be coming.

And we slowly hiked down, looking for a good place to camp.

Melody, walking ahead as I stayed back for more photos!

And our view for the campsite, and Turquoise Lake front and center.

And we said good night after a warm meal although it was still bright out at 9pm.  I ended up getting up around midnight to see if the skies would open up, but that never ended up happening and I retired to bed until the next day, hopefully getting to Twin Lake.