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A Tale of Two Trails
- MommaBlogga
- Apr 26, 2020
- 3 min read
Tired of the house walls, we ventured out to see if God's creation could cure our stir crazy.
Out we boldly stepped from our front porch, took four steps, and into a truck we packed our family of five for an hour-long ride to the nearest state park. One could say this was not well thought out.
The boys' car seats fit just perfectly in the back row. Secured tightly against one another, there is no room for wiggles, and each child need barely extend a tiny arm to pester a sibling.
Since my two oldest have front-facing seat options, they were on the sides. The youngest, Wyatt, was in a rear-facing in the middle. This meant Wyatt spent 80% of the ride kicking his foot on one brother and smacking his arm on the other. The remaining 20% Wyatt tried to nap, but my 3-year-old saw this as a golden opportunity of payback time.
Under normal circumstances, I'm sure I would have been incredibly annoyed at the constant bickering and hitting. Instead, I was so thrilled to be out of the house and heading toward wide open spaces I did not mind at all.
In fact, I laughed it off instead. Oh the joys of being young! Sibling antics, ho ho! Boys will be boys, I suppose! And other such sentiments I say to strangers when they see my kids being pyscho.
When we arrived at one of our state parks, it was packed! We weren't the only ones with this idea. Several others suffering from shut-in blues were seeking the outdoors and sunshine.
The actual park buildings (information center, bathrooms, golf shop, etc.) were closed. This made sense with the recent distancing orders, but we knew the golf course and some of the trails were open. We drove around, hoping to find a less crowded trail.
We noticed one sign with only a few cars parked around it. There was an oddly placed piece of tape to prevent a lot of cars entering and parking, but the gate itself to the trail was open. Huzzah! This was what we were looking for.
Ten gallons of sunscreen and bug spray later, we were off. We were going to blaze some trails, friends! My kids excitedly ran around and bounded from side to side through the little gravelly dirt path.
We made it about 100 yards in when a ranger flipped his siren on, and told us to high-tail it out. Whoops, so that's what the one piece of tape meant. According to him, this area had yet to be sanitized and there were probably already sick folks now because we came in here.
My husband and I looked around at what could possibly be sanitized. Trees? Rocks? The ants my 3-year-old was mean-muggin'? This was awkward.
But we left. This guy was just doing his job, and he was being as nice as he could about it. He directed us to the lake, which was apparently open and clean. That would be a first for a lake.
After driving around to the open areas, we decided they were too crowded. Back to the cozy truck situation, we set our sights on the next park. We were determined to go hiking!
Fast forward about another hour later and we landed in Red Rock Canyon Park. This place was pretty people-heavy, too, but thankfully there were plenty of trails and nature for social distancing and then some. We picked a 2-mile trail, and only got lost once! Success!
I was a little concerned how my 6-year-old was going to handle the walking since any time we venture around the neighborhood he can't make it past the first block without complaining about his legs and guzzling half a water bottle. But he was a total champ! Turns out he just hates the neighborhood, or something. This kid has all the energies when it comes to trails, and was begging to stay longer when we were leaving.
My 3-year-old did fabulously as well. He listened to instructions very carefully on how to climb and "bottom scoot" (as we so graciously guide him when there is a steep decline). He stayed in pace with us for the majority of the time, only slowing down slightly near the end.
My 1.5-year-old did exactly as you expect. He was carried. My husband has the arms of a waving inflatable tube-man today.
The adventure was definitely a success. If it's been some time since you last hiked, then get outdoors! Such a huge mental refresh. God doesn't just do great work, he does the best work. Go check it out, friends.
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