On the agenda for today was the hike to Crabtree Falls. A trail extension was right across from our campsite so once we were fed, dressed and backpacks were full we headed that way. Today was Ryan's camera day so I grabbed the monopod for a little waterfall photography fun while we were down there.
The hike was beautiful the entire way down with lots of ups and downs. Dave found this giant mushroom that had a ray of sun directly on it with lots of water from the showers the night before. The picture Ryan took turned out pretty cool!
At the bottom I took Ryan aside and showed her how to use the monopod to shoot the waterfall. She's still trying to understand the setup but her pictures turned out nice!
The kids all joined Dave down by the base of the waterfall next to climb around and see how close they could get. There was a nice spray of water coming off the waterfall keeping all of us cool.
As she climbed the rocks out Ryan noticed a pile of rocks which is basically an invitation for her to try to get to the same spot and add a rock or start a new pile. She figured it out and did both!
We chose the longer trail back to the campsite since it wasn't as sharp of an ascent. This part of the trail went through a few meadows of beautiful wildflowers. It still surprises me to see flowers in bloom in late June. They're usually pretty burnt up by then in Florida! Dave and Ryan went back down the beginning of the trail once we got back to capture the mushroom again. It's huge!
After lunch we decided to try another hike down the parkway a few miles. We'd heard from several people not to miss Craggy Gardens simply because of the plant life there. Apparently a glacier from Canada dropped off a unique set of fragile plants on this one spot that have survived ever since.
Unfortunately for us a foggy rainstorm began about 30 seconds before we parked. We ducked into the visitors center for a few minutes to see if it would pass. The girls even grabbed their junior ranger books for review since they hadn't seen a ranger in a few weeks. She was excited seeing all their work and was guessing they were probably the first kids this year to be so close to finishing.
After waiting about 30 minutes we decided to put on our ponchos and try the hike anyway. It wasn't raining anymore but it definitely was foggy! This hike was absolutely the most unique plant life we've seen. If only we'd arrived an hour earlier to see the view at the top when all was clear! I made a mental note to stop back by the next day if the weather was any better.
Fortunately back at our campground the weather was clear and we were able to cook dinner and fit in some activity. First up was a homerun derby which ended up being a nice tryout session for campball teams. Dave and I ended up taking on all four kids this time around.
We added a home run wall as the sidewalk for this match up which allowed for Dave and I to jump ahead right away 4-1. The kids came back quickly and we fought for the lead for the rest of the game. I may have intentionally struck out once or twice to keep the game exciting. A certain child gets grumpy when they get too far behind. The game ended kids 14, parents 12. They celebrated like it was the World Series.We still had some daylight so the kids decided it was time to teach Dave how to play Emily's Golf game. He surprisingly didn't already know it so we destroyed him but the kids had a good time making fun of him. I think it will definitely make it in our regular card game rotation for sure.
Emily took a few minutes to braid each of the girls' hair. Laney opted for the faux-hawk braid and Ryan the triple doozy braid. I was only hoping it stayed in their hair for the next day to keep the crazy hair at bay! They didn't scream at her like they do when I try to braid their hair - what gives?!
We took our traditional last night campground walk around our tiny campground. We were all extremely happy to be leaving this campground. We'd had an awful time with gnats every second of the day we were outside, the bathrooms weren't cleaned any of the four days we were there, and even though it wasn't the campground's fault it will be forever tainted by the yelling at 2:30am guy. We still enjoyed our walk and were hopeful our last spot would be exponentially better.
