rocky

Some friends suggested that we meet them at a local park which has a region called "rock city" which is popular with kids and families. We didn't know what kind of weather we'd find ourselves in, since the forecast was the always useless "partly cloudy" and we'd be up at about 1000 feet elevation. I told the girls to grab a sweatshirt and I brought light jackets for them as well. They all decided to wear their school sweatshirts so we looked like we had our own class field trip in tow.


We were meeting Erin's best friend from Kindergarten, Maia, whose family moved to another school district late in their Kindergarten school year, but we've kept in touch. After they arrived and we had a picnic lunch and set off on our hike, which consisted of making our way from one big cluster of boulders to the next, stopping at each while the girls climbed all over and explored each one.

The rocks are made of sandstone, which made their surface slippery because of their loose, sandy texture, and soft enough that many people carved into them and they showed a lot of wear just from all the walking and climbing over the years. The ones near the beginning of the trail are really pretty used-looking. Here is a slide that has been worn into the side of one of them:


Our friends advised us that the hike would take at least 2 hours, which is about 1 hour and 50 minutes longer than my estimated "Mom, I'm tired of walking" point for the twins. But we were committed, and fortunately, the rocks and caves were endlessly fascinating and there wasn't any complaining, even though there were lots of falls and slides and bumps and bruises from slipping on the sandy rocks.



Erin was feeling especially photogenic. "Take a picture of me sitting right here." "Did you get that photo of me climbing there?" Sure, Erin. Uh huh.

I mentioned the obvious wear and tear. Check this out:

The fog was rolling in and out of our area so at times we could see almost nothing in the distance and other times we had some really beautiful views, though it was never clear enough for us to see down the valley below.



The girls especially liked being hoisted up into this high cave and looking down at us through the cave window.

The two hours passed by amazingly quickly and we were back to our starting point, where we had a snack together and the girls had energy to spare and continued to climb on nearby rocks. But on way home fatigue finally set in and they all fell asleep. What a fun day.