Granite Creek bluegrass + Eagle Lake hike

About a million years ago (in June), my friend Rebecca discovered a brand new bluegrass festival starting up in Sutton, about 50 miles from Anchorage. After attending a local festival, the Ocean's Fest (which had its own awesome events, including a shrimp-shucking contest and a bucking salmon ride), we packed up for some car camping and bluegrass listening at the Granite Creek Bluegrass Fest. It was a gorgeous setting, with a view of some stunning mountains (the Chugach, I think) directly behind the stage:


Granite Creek bluegrass
Originally uploaded by t-dawg.


The crowd seemed mostly local (to Sutton), and I'm sure us kids from Anchorage stuck out like so many sore thumbs. But we scooted around on the dirt dance floor with the best of them. The musicians were incredible (some who we saw earlier that day in Anchorage, and a couple of months earlier in Juneau), bolstered by a really, really great sound system. (The sound system makes all the difference, as we discovered, in a bad way, this past weekend in Homer...) We all bought t-shirts (the mark of any event we're really in love with), and trudged back to our campground only when we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer. The bands kept playing as long as it was light -- that is to say, all night, as far as we could tell -- and we fell asleep to the faint sounds of fiddles and banjos...

The next day, we did an awesome 11 mile round trip hike along the south fork of the Eagle River. The hike was mostly flat through lovely sunny tundra -- great way to clear your head after a night of music and dancing. Along the way, Dave jumped into a pond to retrieve what ended up being a really gross and slimy sheep's horn:


Really gross and slimy sheep horn
Originally uploaded by t-dawg.


At the end of the valley are two big lakes -- the prettiest of which is Eagle Lake, which even in June, was covered in a significant amount of ice:


Eagle Lake
Originally uploaded by t-dawg.


I really love this cheesy group shot we took at the top -- don't you think we look like we're selling outdoor gear, or guided hiking tours or something?

Group shot with Eagle Lake
Originally uploaded by t-dawg.


Full set of photos is here.