We started out at the visitors center to check out some big lanterns. We had plenty of our own flashlights on hand, but we thought the kids would enjoy carrying these around, and we could save our batteries!
We started in the easiest cave. This one we could pretty much walk through standing up the whole time, and it was lit with some displays. It was very short, but a good start.
After that the kids were ready to venture into some real caves! We sometimes had to climb, crawl, or shimmy. Alex was so brave, almost too brave. Since he was so small he could go ahead through some of the lower areas to scout out how long it would be that we had to crawl, or to see what's up around the next bend.
Everyone had a good time going under and around all the cool rock formations. The boys wore their bike helmets, but April got a cool lava beds bump hat. I didn't realize how important those hats were until I bumped my head the first time. Ouch! I didn't have a hat on, but will get one next time.
Sometimes the walk was long and hot to get to the cave entrance, but once you get inside the cave it's so nice and cool!
Such a fun adventure with cousins!
Everyone getting ready to enter another cave. Such a happy bunch. All four of our kids, 2 cousins, and Daddy. Not in this picture was Aunt Michelle, Grandma W., and me.
Going down...
Sometimes a few of us would sit at the entrance of the cave if we were tired, or one of the kids didn't want to go in that particular cave. It was cooler to sit in the cave than outside of the cave for sure! For this particular picture I was sitting with April at the bottom of the entrance. We didn't have our flashlights on to save battery, and the light coming from above just looked really neat. I'll call this one "stairway to heaven". We had fun joking about it.
Leave it to my girl to remind me to get a good selfie while in the cave too!
Captain Jack's Stronghold
After the caves, when all the kids were tired and hot, we made them hike a little more! Just a few miles away was not a cave, but a monument/hike called Captain Jack's Stronghold. The kids were not happy about having to get out and walk MORE, but they did. I wish they could have stopped whining long enough to enjoy how beautiful this hike was. Well, maybe by the end they were ok, but I don't know if they noticed all the beauty along this trail. The area where this is seems nearly desolate, but when you look closer there was so much to see! Beautiful wild flowers, dragonflies (lots of them), rock formations, butterflies (lots of them), and much more. I didn't take very many pictures on this walk, but I should have. Here are the 2 I got.
A beautiful flower in the middle of practically dead grass and nothing, surviving the heat.
Alex stopped in the shade and complaining, but he was willing to smile for me so I guess it wasn't all that bad. I loved how he was sitting on the rock with the wildlife around him.
There was certainly something special about this hike/location. I could feel the peacefulness despite the kids complaining, and the hot hot sun.
No comments:
Post a Comment