Heather and I had a brilliant idea to start off the new year. We decided to spend the first weekend of 2010 camping at Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. I love that place, in my youth I went there on many Boy Scout camp outs. Heather and I went there once to celebrate an anniversary, but my kids had never been.
Arrived around 3pm on Friday January 1, 2010. Setup the tent and went on a hike to the cave with Ashley (13), Arianna (9), and DJ (6). Alyssa (11) decided to stay at camp to help Heather setup the rest of camp and take care of baby Benjamin (2.5 months).
Arianna says I should have told her more information about the length and difficulty of the hike to the cave. But even with a few moans and groans I was surprised how well the younger kids did with the 1.5 mile hike up the face of Enchanted Rock to the cave.
I also underestimated how hard it would be for a 6 and 9 year old to get through the cave. The darkness did not phase them, they were very brave. But there is a bit of climbing up and down large rocks to get through the cave. Luckily I had some beef jerky and I lured them on with promises of tasty dried beef. Ashley loved everything about the hike and the cave, she’s my own little Grizzly Adams. She would live in the creek in our backyard if we let her.
As the sun went down the cold took over. The forecast was for a pleasant 40ºf low that night, but 9pm it was around 30º. At 6:30am the next morning it was 25º. Heather suggested we get in the van and warm up. On the way to the van Anna tossed her cookies. Between that and the cold I decided to take the young ones home.
Ashley, Alyssa, and me returned to the park around 10am and broke camp. We decided to take another hike since Alyssa had not really seen much of the place. We had a very fun 4 mile hike up the smaller dome, taking our time to play on the rocks and search for wildlife. Ashley discovered some little creatures swimming around in the rain pools on the top, that was about all the wildlife we found, but we had a great time climbing down the east face.
