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.......

Shenandoah National Park

Peyton used my camera to take some pictures today. She thought that was cool.

As this deer crossed the path both kids started to run! It freaked them out a little bit!

I took the kids to SNP today for a short hike. I was hoping to do the entire Story of the Forest Nature Trail, which is a 1.8 mile loop, but after getting started, there was no way we could do the whole thing. I don't know what I was thinking expecting a 2.5 and 4.5 year old to walk almost 2 miles. Liam was begging to be held and whining that he was hungry after about 15 minutes on the trail, but Peyton was a trooper. She was looking for deer and other wildlife, mainly bears, which secretly she really wanted to see.

We saw 5 deer and 2 chipmunks, and heard lots of birds. We also saw a bunch of people on the trail, including a group of school children on a field trip. Peyton and Liam enjoyed throwing rocks into the creek and looking for nature. Peyton even went behind a rock to pee in the woods! We ate lunch at the Big Meadows' wayside and then walked out into the meadow just to look. It was pretty late in the day and Liam was a mess, whining and complaining, so we took off for home. We only saw one deer on the drive back to Harrisonburg. I'm hoping to do more stuff there this summer, camping, hiking, picnics, etc. I just need to get them to stop whining when we've only walked for 10 minutes!