Finally Went Hiking!

YAY!...

I announced to the kids Wednesday, after picking them up from co-op, that we would be going hiking tomorrow (Thursday). Zachary then asked "What about school work?" and I answered "We are playing hooky." there were shouts of excitement in the car after that. I love homeschooling. :)

Thursday morning I woke-up and packed a lunch for us to eat when we got there. It's an hour and a half drive to get to Port Angeles, and a half an hour more to get to Lake Crescent. We stopped at Port Angeles to visit the Olympic National Parks' Visitors Center.

They have a really nice staff, and they helped us pick out some trails that would be easy enough for us to do. We had already done the Marymere falls trail and we wanted to do that same trail again, with maybe a few new ones. The lady who was helping us recommended the Sol Duc water fall trail as well, because it wasn't to far from Marymere, and it was an easy mostly flat trail (we really can't hike strait up a mountain with little ones).

The Marymere Falls trail starts at the Lake Crescent Lodge, and is a mile long. It is a mostly easy trail, with a few steep steps at the very end of the trail. Going back down those steep steps is the worst part.

I always feel the need to carry Olivia on the way back down because I don't want her to lose her footing. The tail and the view is beautiful! 

After Marymere we drove another half an hour to get to the Sol Duc Springs Resort. From there we went on the Sol Duc Falls trail.....

...and the Ancient Groves trail

The Sol Duc trail was easy and like she said mostly flat, so we had a great time walking it, and it was also a mile to the falls and a mile back. Not bad at all. The Ancient Grove however was terrifying. It was a short half mile loop, that lead you to this cliff side trail, that is very narrow, and had a huge drop off. I'm just glad no one lost their footing. The view was breath taking but that might have been because we were fearing for our lives.

We had a really good time, and it was nice taking the day slow and seeing the sights. The kids collected  rocks and they came back to the car with full pockets (even Olivia).

So glad Jeremy is finally healed enough to do things like this :)