Sunday, August 23, 2009

Dark Hollow Falls Hike






We took the kids up to Skyline Drive this past week to do some geocaching. One of Mark's co-workers gave him a GPS so we decided to give it a try. We found some coordinates near Dark Hollow Falls and went to find the box. The box was located off of the fire road, which is just not a hike for small ones. I think the total loop for that hike is 5 miles. We ended up hiking as close to the bottom as we could go (and still be able to hike up without carrying kids) and got to see the falls. Peyton and Liam really liked scrambling on the rocks and looking for deer. Some of the other hikers told us they had seen a bear near the trail, but we didn't see it. There were so many people hiking that it probably got scared and went deeper into the woods. So I've still never see a bear in Shenandoah National Park. I have seen loads of deer, but that's pretty much it.

After we got back up to the top of the trail, I hiked a mile to the Big Meadows' lodge and saw another deer and a bunch of butterflies. I'm glad that we are exposing our kids to the joys of hiking. Mark and I really like it and we are looking forward to being able to do longer and longer hikes with our kids. They can only do short ones now, but they're getting better. Peyton walked the entire Dark Hollow Falls trail that we did and Liam only had to be carried twice.

School starts tomorrow. Peyton is so excited. I realized last night that I have nothing to pack for her lunch, so I'm going to be running out to the store this afternoon. I'm feeling less anxious now that we have met her teacher, but I am not looking forward to having to get her up and going every morning from now on.......

No comments: