It has been 12 days now since we completed our backpacking trip in the Enchantments (with a baby & a toddler), and I’m still kind of in shock.
I keep looking back at our pictures and saying to myself, I can’t believe we did that with kids.
If you’re not familiar, this is a bucket list worthy (& very difficult!) hike in Washington state that requires backpackers to enter an ultra-competitive lottery for permits.
We apply every year and call it our “annual donation” because we’ve only ever gotten permits once.
But this year, just weeks after our baby was born, we found out that not only had we won permits… but we got them for peak larch* season which has always been a DREAM of ours!
*Larches look like pine trees, but they turn bright golden yellow each fall! You can find them in some high alpine areas in the PNW as well as other places around the world.
Our friends who live in Thailand joined us for this trip, and it was truly unbelievable.
But not without its challenges.
I wrote it all down in this Instagram post (plus tons of pictures), so check it out if you’re curious what a very difficult backpacking trip looks like when you add kids to the mix!
Washington Fall Road Trip
Before & after our backpacking trip, we spent a month exploring Washington (aka our favorite state in the USA!).
Slow fall mornings in our campervan ❤️
Here’s what our month looked like…
Cute coffee shops.
Bucket list hikes.
Slow mornings in the campervan.
Waterfalls that are too pretty to be real.
Bakeries (including the best salted baguette I’ve ever had).
Breweries.
Unbelievable views.
Rave-worthy restaurants.
U-Pick orchards.
Cozy campgrounds.
Amazing sunsets.
Perfection, if you ask me.
I’m beyond grateful to have had this time with our girls at the ages they are.
The news seems to be getting more & more stressful these days, so it felt good to disconnect from the world a bit and focus on being fully present.
(Ironically, we got really good signal with our Starlink so we had to actually try to “turn it all off”.)
During this trip, we went to some of our tried and true favorite places as well as spots I’ve had pinned on my list for years!
It's so satisfying adding new pins to our PNW Map!
We were on the road for a total of 26 days, and NOT ONCE did we use our daughter’s tablet.
She stayed so busy with all the screen-free toys we packed!
I’ll clarify here that we are not a screen-free family. Our toddler has a tablet that definitely comes in handy on long road trips and airplane journeys. We think it can be a great tool, and there are different apps and shows that she learns a lot from.
But screens are screens, and we all need a break from them.
We started the road trip seeing how long we could go before she asked for the tablet, and guess what…?
We had packed so many fun screen-free toys that she never even asked for it!
