Getting Out

I love the fall and I love the opportunity to get out in the cooler weather to see the beautiful country that we have right here in our backyard.  Last weekend Kenzie, Riley, Jake, Blue and I had the opportunity to go on a 9 mile hike to see some cool waterfalls.  It was funny, I didn't really know how long it would take to see the waterfall, but we headed out anyway.  The directions said that if we went west we would have more water crossings but it was an easier grade going up.  So we went out on the west trail.

The directions I read also said it was about 3 miles in where you would cross a waterfall with a bridge that goes over the creek.  Well, at three miles, we didn't cross the creek but we did see a lot of beautiful country.  McKenzie would stop every 1/2 mile or so to capture some of the scenery on her camera.

While waiting for Kenzie to finish taking pictures, Riley and I posed for a quick selfie.  You can see his braces! (7th graders are so cute, aren't they?)

At about 3 miles in we still hadn't seen the waterfall so I lied to the kids telling them we were only 2.5 miles in.  I had read somewhere else that you came to the waterfall at 4.5 miles in and we were so close to 4.5 miles that I didn't want to turn around.  At 4.2 miles though, the kids caught me in my deceit and told me that they were tired and we should turn around.  I told them the truth of where we were and coerced them into going just .1 mile more.  At this point we hiked a little further up a hill and there was a small path off to our right that the kids thought just might lead to the waterfall.  Willing to try anything at this point I followed them off the trail and sure enough, just a little ways in we were greeted by the sight of this.

A little further in and we saw another small waterfall with the most blue water I have ever seen.  There is no filter on these pictures.  The water is this blue.

I guess it is blue due to rock flour?  Kenzie thought it might be the copper reacting with the water and maybe that is it too because we do have a lot of copper in our water.  Anyway, the water was beautiful.  At this point we had two choices, we could turn around and go back the way we came or find a safe place to cross the creek and go down the other side.  I wanted to cross the creek and come down the east side of the trail to see how different the two trails were.  So we found where you can cross and came to the opposite side of the waterfall.

Kenzie is taking a picture from the top of the waterfall here.

Just below her it drops down like this.

Here we sat and ate lunch and rested a little before we headed back.

Blue enjoyed the rest and the food that we shared with him.

On the way back down we saw some beautiful fall scenery.

Then, about 3 miles from the trailhead, we came across a bridge and another waterfall!

This is the bridge the trail guide was referring to, but it was on the east side of the trail, not the west side which is why we had to go further.  So, I'm glad we chose the west side to go up or I don't know if we would have seen the gigantic waterfall.

This waterfall you had to hike back a bit to get a good view of.

Riley and Jake found a way to scoot in behind it and Kenzie took their picture for them.

Jake got a little tired on the way down and when McKenzie stopped to take some photos, decided to rest on the trail.

Anyway, the site of the two waterfalls were well worth the nine mile hike and I loved the time I got to spend with my kids.

Brad took Ben, Riley and Jake the following Saturday to do another local hike.  I'm not sure you can call this one a hike though.  It may be more like rock climbing/hike.  Brad said I would have made it on the way up but probably would have had a rough time coming down.  Here's the pictures from their adventure.  Yes, the terrain was as steep as it looks in some of these pictures.

Brad was super proud of Jake who listened to instructions well and didn't hold anyone back from reaching the peak.  Just to give you some perspective the peak here is a 13 footer, that's 13,077 feet.  The first time Brad every climbed something that tall he was 40.  Jake's 10.  Good job Jake!

P.S.  Brad says I need to make a correction.  It is not a 13 footer.  The mountain peak is a 13er.  I guess there's a difference.