The first morning of our camping trip we decided to take all the kids for a short hike before it got too terribly hot. Of course, getting everyone ready for a short hike seems to take about as long as the hike itself. But before too long, we were ready to set off -- first the "short hike" to the parking lot:
Emily and I had talked with the rangers at the visitor's center and they had suggested a trail for a kid-friendly hike. They said if you started at one end and went about 1/4 mile there was a natural bridge. (The overall trail was 2 miles long.) We decided to hike to the natural bridge and then turn around and go back.
The only problem was we couldn't seem to find the trailhead based on the map we had. We finally found a little parking area and a sign that seemed to be about right.
Here's our family:
And the Roberts:
Off we went! It was a pretty small trail, but we followed it along.
We saw some interesting sights along the way. Cactus flowers (which little 2-year-old Sammy thought were pretty enough to touch - ouch!)
And a big lizard hanging out:
But before too long, our trail ended and we hadn't seen anything resembling a natural bridge. And the trail was supposed to keep going for another couple of miles.
We finally decided we really didn't have the right trail, so we loaded back up in the cars. As we were driving back to the campsite, we noticed a sign off the side of the road for the trailhead we had been looking for (but no parking areas nearby). Found it! We decided to come back later that evening with the bigger kids -- the little ones were all hiked out.
On our way back, we stopped for a minute at an outdoor ampitheatre area with several metal bison statues (since Caprock Canyons State Park is the home of the official Texas state bison herd). They had a little area where the kids could uncover fossils:
This is the closest we came to seeing any bison.
Hayley taking a break in the shade:
After swimming and dinner later, several of us returned to the trailhead to attempt to find the natural bridge once more.
This was obviously a better trail!
Hayley and Eric were so cute together.
Finally we discovered the natural bridge! The trail was actually the top part of the bridge.
Hannah taking a rest:
After exploring around the bridge for a bit, Brian and the older boys decided they wanted to continue hiking the 2-mile trail since it ended not far from our campsite.
The rest of us went back to the van and heard from the hikers when they finally made it back that it was a harder hike than they expected, but they were glad they went.
We had a great time camping, despite the heat and the bugs and the sunburns and the wild pig! We need to do it again sometime!
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