One of the "post fencing camp" activities I thought about doing was hiking. I read online about a family friendly hike to a waterfall, easy trail, not too long, and thought that would be just the ticket. I'm not likely to take the kids hiking if we have to drive a while to get to the start, but if we were already there, it would make a good diversion.
I had looked up the hike to Rocky Mouth Waterfall, but then yesterday was led astray by an Instagram picture of my nephew at Bells Canyon Waterfall. Somehow I thought that was the one I had meant to go to, and I printed off the directions to Bells Canyon. I also did the directions to Rocky Mouth, but convinced myself somehow that we should do Bells Canyon because it was closer to where we were doing fencing camp.
I picked the wrong hike. We did hike, but it was more challenging than I had thought, and we didn't make it to the waterfall which was way further away than I thought. Rocky Mouth would have taken us 15 minutes to get to, but getting to the waterfall would have taken us over an hour at Bells Canyon. Fortunately, the hike did lead to a lovely lake that we hung around at for a bit before we had to turn around and start back. Brandt had an eye appointment and we were limited in our time.
In spite of choosing badly, it turned out okay. The hike was hot (we were hiking in the middle of the day), but it wasn't too challenging. Brandt and Blythe both wanted to stop every 90 seconds, and it was getting to the point that it was totally annoying, so I set the timer on the phone for five minutes and made them walk that long before we stopped for a break. I also didn't let them stop at all on the way back down because it was much easier.
The lake really was beautiful. We watched ducks, threw rocks in the water, and looked for signs of animal life (part of another cub scout requirement). We saw insects and the biggest ground squirrel I've ever seen. It was FAT! I think the kids like to hike (I hope), and it was fun to see something new, even if we didn't make it to the waterfall. Another time, I suppose.
For the record, Brandt did not pee his pants.
Instead, he dumped water all over his lap just before we got out of the car.
Why?
Hard to say.
We stopped to look at the view.
The view below.
Doesn't this picture just scream excitement about the whole experience?
No, I didn't think so either.
Isn't it lovely!
Rock throwing which irritated Blythe because the kept getting splashed.
It may or may not have been deliberate splashing.
A sign of animal life.
The kids thought these little mayflies were super cool and probably took twelve pictures of this one on my back.
Another sign of life.
Here duckie, duckie, duckie!
Come and eat this cracker.
On the hike back.
Brandt was pointing out a cloud that looked just like a star destroyer.
What do you think?
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