Let's Go Hiking!

We didn't have a normal Thanksgiving this year. We didn't have our meal on Thursday. We didn't have fancy dishes. We didn't dress up.

In fact, we had our meal on Wednesday. We used throw-away dishes and we ate with a little dirt on our jeans. 

It was the most wonderful Thanksgiving week. We spent our week at a cabin in the beautiful Ozark Mountains. Of course you can't go to the Ozarks with doing a little hiking. 

We all arrived in stages, so on the first day my daughter, her three boys, and I walked the Whitaker Point Trail. Our destination was a rock formation that juts out from the bluff that resembles a Hawk's beak. Thus it's called Hawksbill Crag. It overlooks Whitaker Creek and a huge valley. Above you can see my daughter and boys. Below, I'm with the boys and you can see the rock formation. Although it is a little scary knowing that you're out on a rock even if it is a wide rock. We didn't go near the edge and we made the boys sit down! I'll have to confess, I wasn't about to stand up!

On the second day, my son and his family arrived. We all hiked the trail to The Glory Hole. The Glory Hole is a waterfall cascading through a natural-made hole in a rock down into a cave. The trail is steep in places, especially going down to the bottom of the waterfall where the rocks are damp and slippery with leaves. None of us minded taking a few breaks along the way!

Gramps arrived in time for the hike on the third day. Lost Valley was our destination. This was my favorite trail. It's beautiful with so many rock formations, a waterfall, a cave, and unusual trees. The trail starts out easy, but as you climb becomes more difficult.

Our little Isaac, whose is two, walked with me at the beginning of this trail. We brought up the rear. Ahead of him is Jerry (my husband), Randy (son), Patty (daughter, on left), Aimee (daughter-in-law on right) and the three other grandson way up there in the distance. You can barely see them. Although Isaac walked as much as he could, his dad had to carry him through the difficult parts.

This trail has a Natural Bridge where water flows out of a tunnel into a reflecting pool. Remember I said it got harder. We actually climbed up the right side of the waterfall into the tunnel. I still can't believe I did that. That's me in the picture above, far left.

There's a second waterfall on this trail, Eden Falls. What happens when you put boys and water together? You get lots of rock throwing! As the rocks hit the water their sound echoed loudly around us. It sounded like small canons.

Rest time again!

The rock formations were breathtaking!  

One last picture, of me and the boys. You'll notice that our oldest grandson is not with us except on the first day. He and his dad hiked the Buffalo River Trail, a total of 39 miles. An amazing accomplishment for these two!  So proud of them both!

(picture taken by Jacob, my son-in-law)

Thanks for hanging around and getting to the end. There's just so much I want to share about our week. I'll be back with a few more nature details as soon as I'm able.