We stopped at the main office and picked up a couple of maps, while driving to the parking area, the boys were reading the information on the backside and one piece got their attention quickly....it was in the vegetation and wildlife section....third paragraph down...
Yeah...rattlesnakes....it's the first time the kids have known that they were in rattlesnake country and we're extra vigilant, they walked slower and kept looking for anything that looked like a snake. But with almost 6 inches of rain two days before and a cloudy, overcast day we were there (it started to rain the last half mile of our hike), the likelihood of seeing a rattlesnake was low...
The hike was going to be short, just two miles....completely doable. Then we saw the results of the recent rain and some of the terrain we would be going over...good hike though. At the first big mud patch, I turned and told all the kids to go slow and be careful. I was specifically talking to Lex, she's on her own on these hikes, but seconds later I heard a wet, sloppy, thud...
Lex made it through just fine....Kieran bringing up the rear, he hit the ground. That picture is an hour later....after he cleaned some of it off...big mess...
Going on with the hike....here's Luke looking for snakes...good thing we never saw one (who knows what Luke would do with a rattlesnake)...
The route took us past the river a couple of times, which was fun looking. The river goes into the cave at about 70 degrees this time of year, but comes out much colder....great trout habitat. It didn't take too much looking to see some brown trout...
When the trail had a rock base and was more open, Luke was more confident taking the lead...
Though when he's in the lead, he sometimes tries to take wrong turns....found him at this river crossing wondering what to do (we didn't have to cross it)...
Farther upstream, not sure if Lex was trying to command the trout to come to the surface or not....
Once we got away from the river, the terrain definitely changed (less muddy yes)....we started hiking up...
Hard to get an idea of the slope, but there were several switchbacks and we all were definitely slowing down...
Good news was that half way up the steepest slope, we found the password we needed for our hiking club....the password is right behind Kieran's head. You want to know it? Go look for it...
Shortly after, it started raining pretty good (we drove home through some real heavy rain. Luke at one point said "dad, can you see the road?" I replied "why?" His answer was "I can't" I almost pulled over 3-4 times)....
But good thing we got our picture of the sign as we were entering the park...
And yes...we got our passport stamped...
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