Day 3: Hanging Rock & Upper Cascades Falls

After all that hiking, we slept a little better the second night. Again, we had donuts, eggs, sausages and fruit for breakfast.

Every good hike starts out with a warning that you could die. Our hike for the morning was to go up to Hanging Rock.

I hated the trail. It was wide and heavily trafficked and covered with small riprap. I felt like we were walking on a road. The one good thing about the hike up was that the kids found this butterfly that really like them. Simon has loved butterflies to varying degrees since he was a baby, and for him to finally hold and touch one and even feed it was probably the best moment of his life.

 

 

Alice does great on hikes (as long as we keep her fed) but Simon constantly asks how long it is and wants precise answers even although we don't know how much longer.

As we neared the top, the features started to get more interesting!

Every crevice must be explored...

Not quite to hanging rock...but getting very close! We stopped here for a snack break.

Finally, we reached the top. It was terrifying!

After we thoroughly enjoyed our time scampering around on the top of cliffs where we could fall and die, we eventually headed back down. We had lunch (tuna noodle casserole) at the picnic area near the visitors center, and we also went inside to look around.

For the afternoon adventure, we walked to Upper Cascades Falls. It was a very short hike. The falls was beautiful, but unfortunately other people were there as well!  The pool at the bottom was quite small, but that didn't stop the kids from trying to swim in it.

To get away from the people, we ended up going down below the falls again, where we found a place to play with no people around. Simon generally enjoys building damns and pools, while Alice likes to climb around.

We eventually headed back, stopping briefly at the "rock garden" to climb around some more.

On our way back to camp, we stopped at the general store again to get more ice. Alice also got this giant ice cream sandwich (which Zac had to help her finish).

Back at camp, the kids did a decent job entertaining themselves.

My favorite quote from the camping trip: "Alice, stop playing in the trash and go play in the fire!"

Day 2: Moore's Knob & Lower Cascades Falls

After an unrestfull night and a breakfast of eggs, sausages, donuts and fruit, we headed out on our first hike of the trip: Moore's Knob. The trail conveniently began at the creek right at the bottom of our campsite.

The path up the mountain was mostly steps, built by the civilian conservation corps in the 1930s. Alice did fine on the hike on the way up, but Simon had a lot of trouble and kept breaking down until we got some more food and water into him.

As we neared the top and started to get some good views, the kids began to appreciate the work of climbing a mountain.

We finally arrived (quite sweaty and hot) at the tower atop Moore's Knob.

We explored the peak for a while.  Alice especially loved it. Unfortunately, she has no fear, which caused us quite a bit of fear. (None of these pictures are quite as dangerous as they look, though.)

Our hiking trip should have been sponsored by Oreos. They were the main thing keeping our peanut-butter-averse kids fueled up. That and applesauce pouches. Simon eats fairly willingly, but Alice also resists and insists her bad temper is caused by us being so mean to her, rather than her hunger. Once she eats, her mood miraculously improves.

After hanging out at the top for a while, we headed back down. On our way back, we stopped to check out Balanced Rock, which really was quite precariously balanced.

We made it back to our campsite for a late lunch of macaroni and cheese with ham and peas. Oh how I wish we had kids that loved peanut butter and jelly.

Oreos for dessert, yes, but these are special moon landing oreos!

After we'd refueled, we head back out and drove a couple of miles to Lower Cascade Falls. It was a pretty short hike down to the falls. The waterfall was beautiful and went into a large pool.  The only problem was the zillion other people there!

Alice got right in and embraced the swimming opportunity.

Simon and Zac explored downstream, where it was far less crowded.

Eventually, we all took a creek walk downstream to explore. It was so beautiful everywhere!

Grumpy Alice being forced to eat a snack. (Really, the whole trip was great except trying to keep the kids caloric intake up with their caloric expenditure. It was a tough accounting job.)

Eventually we needed to head back to our campsite for supper, and Alice had fun counting the steps on the way back up. Here she is at step #100.

That evening, somehow the kids weren't worn out enough from all the hiking, so they wanted to go around the campsite loop.  Alice ran, while Simon and I walked. Simon had fun making water stops at the spigots throughout the campground.

I'd packed the kids scooters at the last minute, thinking they could ride them around at the campground a bit. Alice said the road was too bumpy and too hilly (both true), so Simon made a scooter track at the campsite that kept them both busy for a while in the evening.