Day 4 kicked it up a notch for scenery and despite the mediocre weather it was our favorite day so far. And it would remain Norah’s favorite day of the entire trek. Forget dramatic mountains and turquoise lakes - it was the fossils that did it for Norah. Today was a perfect example of why we loved having Victor as a guide. While our crew and all other trekkers took the traditional route, a relatively easy hike over Carhuac Pass (book time: 4-5 hours, 420 m ascent, 510 descent), we took the alternate high route. Well, really the alternate, alternate high route as Victor took us to a bonus viewpoint of the famous Three Lakes. It was a terrific hike.

Instead of hiking back towards Mitococha, we started our day by climbing up the ridge east of our camp. This brought us to a high alpine meadow with many cows and several condors. Once we reached the meadow we hiked along a ridge that provided us with a bird's eye view of Mitococha and the hanging lake Ninacocha above it. We had a pleasant, easy hike through the long valley and eventually began our climb to what we dubbed “Fossil Pass”. The final climb was a scramble up the rock face and this is where Norah nearly lost her mind from the sheer number of ammonites laying around. Victor had assured us we would see fossils this day and I was thinking we might find a few if we looked hard enough. Nope. Ammonites galore. Just pick up a rock of a certain gray color and you would find either a piece of an ammonite or an imprint of one. Norah finally stopped telling us when she found a fossil because nearly everything she picked up had one. Definitely Norah’s highlight of the trip (and we thought it was pretty cool too).

We spent a long time at Fossil Pass finding ammonites and enjoying the views and it was with some reluctance that we continued along our way. A short distance away we topped out on the true pass of the day at Punta Alcay (4800 m/15500 ft) and started our descent to Laguna Alcaycocha. We stopped to ooh and ahh over the adorable viscachas we saw in the boulder field - loved these little guys! We traversed in and out of the hills to a viewpoint of the big mountains and we stopped for a quick lunch. We could also see our camp at the shore of Carhuacocha, but we weren’t quite ready to head there yet. We continued along the traverse to a high point that had a fantastic view of the iconic Three Lakes (Quesillococha, Laguna Siula, and Laguna Gangrajanca). Wow!

While at the overlook it started to hail and this prompted us to retrace our steps along the traverse then make a quick descent into the valley. We intersected the main trail and had an easy, quick walk to the ridge just above Carhuacocha. We couldn’t resist another stop to take in the gorgeous views, but yet again, rain spurred us on. It rained heavily while we hustled around the lake to our campsite on the eastern shore. We loved having camp set up when we arrived and we immediately sat down in the dining tent for hot drinks and snacks. The rain stopped long enough we could get settled in our tent, then it started back up again, this time with thunder and lightning (which Victor said was very uncommon. I was seriously beginning to question this supposed “dry season”!). Dinner was chicken cordon blue and rice and we had another early night in the tent. Rain or not, it was a great day!

Day 4 alternate high route:

510 m/1675 ft ascent
602 m/1975 ft descent
Book time: 5.5 - 7 hours (longer for our additional viewpoint)
High point: Punta Alcay 4740 m/15500 ft
Camp at Carhuacocha 4138 m/13600 ft