Monday, June 23, 2008

Waterfalls and Hiking

This weekend we made two separate trips to Mapleton and while there we decided to take the kids hiking and visit a couple waterfalls.

Beaver Creek Falls:





This waterfall was only a short walk down a path, so that was nice.

Sweet Creek Falls:



A little longer walk, but not far at all. The kids loved climbing on the rocks.

On Sunday afternoon we went to Kentucky Falls. The trailhead is 16 miles off Hwy 126--mostly paved, but some gravel. Mostly one lane road, windy and steep. The last intersection is not marked so we had to take a guess. Once to the trailhead, it is a 3/4 mile hike to the upper falls, which includes some switchbacks to get down to the falls.

Upper Kentucky Falls:



Then to continue to the lower falls it is another 1.25 mile of downhill. Which turns into uphill on the way back. Second youngest son informed me that he doesn't like uphills. I said, "Yeah, well, try doing a triathlon and then hiking 4 miles, kid." Not really. I just patted him on the head and said "We're almost there."

Lower Kentucky Falls (there are 2 separate ones next to each other):




The walk was worth every step, even though I was tired. Littlest guy did not walk much since he just wanted to stand in the path poking things with sticks, but everyone else did very well. We lost Helen Mae for a while--Daren sat down to rest and she kept going. She was running on the path for maybe 20 minutes by herself, trying to catch up to the boys in front. There were no turnoffs, but it was very steep on one side of the path so I got nervous. We sent Robyn on up ahead and she came upon her in about 5 minutes or so.

There were many pretty wildflowers:






And cute kids:

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