Fern Canyon

Let me tell you about this place. I found it in one of those pesky tourist brochures, and thought we would give it a try. It was completely worth it! It was Fern Canyon state park and to get there we had to drive up a curvy road for about 3 miles at 20 miles an hour. The interesting part about the drive was how much undergrowth there was. However, it was all covered in (I suppose) road dust. All the ferns, plants, trees, etc were covered in a layer of dirt. I wish I had taken a picture. I can only imagine what it would be like after a hard rain, when everything is green and fresh. We also had to cross over 3 "streams" the park attendant told us about. "Just drive right through them" he said. I am grateful hubby was driving, because when I saw the "streams" I might have turned back. They were probably about 6-8 feet wide and 8-10 inches deep. However, they didn't hurt the car, and again, completely worth it. The brochure said it was an "easy" 2 mile loop. I am not sure I would have characterized it as "easy" but that also could have been due to the fact that I was "wearing" an extra 20 lb little boy. Amazing what that'll do ya.

Our family at the beginning of the canyon. I am not sure these picture do it justice because the canyon walls were so high. And covered with such green lusciousness. Oh, so neat!

Again, for perspective.

Man, this place was a rock throwers paradise. Kari and Kaitlyn picked up hundreds of rocks, just to throw them, and start all over again. In fact, we had to pick up Kaitlyn because she was straggling behind. She had two rocks in her hands when I put her on my shoulders (I passed Dylan to the hubby), and she held them tight. At one point she started slipping, and instead of dropping the rocks and grabbing me, she squeezed her legs and hoped (I guess) I would catch her. The funny thing? As soon as I put her down, she threw those precious rocks and picked up two more. Silly girls :)

I like how hubby and Kaitlyn are over in the corner looking up at the wall.

I also discovered a cool feature on my camera while there. It takes panoramic pictures and will "stitch" them together into one big long one. I don't know if blogger will let you enlarge these, but try. This place was just so cool!

Again, enlarge, and check out the prospective of the people and the plants.

Near the end of the hike we found this cool bridge.

We are such a cute family :)