Annapurna Sanctuary

Twelve years ago my family and I flew to Nepal to hike through the Annapurna mountains.  My dad carved a wooden walking stick for me that wrote Nepal 1998 and amazingly I was able to walk the trails again with Tad, Casey and Ty last week.  

First sunrise on the Annapurna trail.  We would wake up early for the sunrise and share a big pot of lemon ginger tea.

After hiking a few hours we arrived at bigger village which was celebrating the seasonal rhododendron festival.  They had a huge volley ball competition which we wanted to join but it was really competitive and organized.

One of the first things we learned was humility!  You think that your pretty cool to be hiking in the Himalayas and carrying your own pack up and down some of the steepest elevation on the planet, but then you see the locals...

This guy was carrying a full bed frame on his back, and this was totally normal.  We saw people carrying giant cages full of chickens, propane tanks, massive bundles of wood or straight up baskets of rocks.  So we stopped and took our time to enjoy the view and take some glamor shots.

After each day of hiking we would crash at one of the many tea houses along the way, throw on all our warm clothes and sit down to play cards.  It became tradition to play a game of Rumi while we waited for dinner.  This was fun... until Ty ruined it by winning almost every time.

The higher we got the more time we spent bundled in our room to stay warm...

The terrain was incredibly diverse.  We walked through meadows that felt like the sound of music, hillsides carved into mesmerizing rice fields with small stone houses strewn about.

There were small river crossings...

...and massive suspension bridges spanning the valleys.  

We dipped down into bamboo jungles...

...and then climbed high into snowy glacier valleys surrounded by the highest peaks we have ever seen.  

Took a few more glamor shoots...

But it was the mountains that stole the spotlight!  As soon as the clouds parted this heaven on earth was revealed.

It was hard to leave, but we had a long hike back down and were running out of money.  Turns out there aren't any ATM's in the Annapurna mountains.

Our last night was one of the best!  The room we had was like a giant tree fort suspended on the edge of the cliff with windows making up two sides of the room.  The view was fantastic and the place was just up the hill from a natural hot spring!!

You'll notice that Ty's getting a head massage / hair makeover by one of the local kids who thought it was hilarious to give everyone mohawks.  We all felt refreshed and ready to go on our last day.  It was a long hike but we made it back to Pokhara.