Camp Day #3

The location for the third camp day we attended was Rock Bridge Memorial State Park.  We have been to the Devil's Ice Box trail, Gans Creek, and a few other trails in that are of the park, but I did not realize that the park was larger than that.  The park does not have individual camp sites, however, I have now learned, that they do have a special use area for group camping.  It is a really great area!  Two firepits, several picnic tables, a great open area, and surrounding woods.  There is even a trail that leads from the special use area to the Shooting Star trail, where we took a very nice nature hike.  The trail leads past bluffs over Gans Creek and to a shelter cave.  The cave required a bit of climbing, and Madeline was the only one of my three who was excited about climbing up to it.  She went up with a couple of her friends and one of the other mothers.  The other two found a frog in the creek and spent some time observing him.  I was actually surprised to see the frog since it was kind of chilly.  He was not moving very quickly, which facilitated the girls being able to catch his several times.

We tried something new for lunch as well.  I made some honey wheat bread to take with us, and we made grilled cheese sandwiches in our cast iron pan over the fire.  The first one was a bit over done, but after that we got the hang of it, and the rest were quite tasty!

This is the frog that the girls caught.  Actually, after they caught it, I looked in the water and saw a couple others. 

Madeline climbing up to the shelter cave.  She found several fossils inside.  I am actually looking forward to taking another hike on this trail in the near future so that I can climb up there with her and check it out!

A Nature Walk

We took a nature walk at one of our favorite locations today, Rock Bridge State Park.  It was such a gorgeous day!  We took the Devil's Ice Box Trail, which is a boardwalk path that leads to the Devil's Ice Box Cave.  We have been on this trail several times and down into the cave a few times as well.  I was surprised that the younger two girls seemed to be a bit reluctant to go in, although they have been through the cave tour before, but I suppose it has been a while since we have been there.  Also, Hailey seems to be going through a stage of being very cautious about everything.  Recently she has been very hesitant to get on the trampoline in gymnastics and she was very careful going over the wooden bridges today as well.  Anyway, Madeline was excited to go into the cave, or at least into the part that get sunlight.  She did take her headlight, but did not want to go back into the dark portions of the cave.  

We also saw lots of different types of plants and insects.  We saw more dragonflies than I think I have ever seen.  We usually find lots of life in the stream, but there was really none that could easily be found today.  The girls did have fun finding different types of rocks in the stream, including some containing iron that they thought might be from Mars.  They also made some new friends.

Madeline standing in the cave.

Looking up from inside the cave.

Looking down into the cave.  That big grey rock is the one Madeline was standing on.

A Fall Walk

We took another walk at Rock Bridge Park.  This time we were checking out the leaves that have fallen off of the trees.  We found several different kinds of leaves.  I really need to get a tree guide so that we can identify the trees the leaves came from!  

Isabella collected a lot of oak leaves.

Hailey found some big leaves.

Here is a picture of Madeline making me nervous (yes, that is a drop off right behind her)!

A Walk

We had a nice walk at Rock Bridge State Park.  The girls had a great time exploring, and were fascinated by the stream.  Actually, I think they found the water interesting because I told them that it was too cold to get into it and explore.  Hailey was also fascinated by all of the leaves that have now fallen off of the trees.  I was hoping to do a project with leaves this year, like waxing leaves to make decorations, but it seems that the leaves here do not really change to pretty colors.  They just turn brown and fall off.  Anyway, there were lots of things to explore, like a hollow stump, a fallen tree, and some interesting rocks.  

Here are Madeline and Isabella gathering information about the cave.  

Hailey liked playing with all of the leaves.  I think she liked uncovering things to see what was under the leaves!
Madeline checked out some of the rocks.  She said that she found some fossils, after we got home.  Maybe next time she will share them with us!
This old tree was of great interest to Madeline and Isabella.  I just kept hoping it was not home to anyone.
Madeline found this old hollow stump and could not resist climbing inside.  Again, I was hoping it was not someone's home!
Here are the girls checking out the stream.  Madeline tried pouring water into the stream to see what would happen.

Madeline and Isabella could not resist the "balance beam"!

An Adventure

Today we spent some time at Rock Bridge State Park. They were giving cave tours, so we all joined a guide for a tour of Connor's Cave. The girls got a chance to see some cave formations and experience total darkness (not their favorite part). Here are a few pictures of them ejoying the trip.

We also made some interesting discoveries on the trail and in the creek.