We need a break!

All this vacationing has worn us out!  After Rainbow Gathering, OCF and a little meltdown from a 6 year old, we decided some down time was needed.  Back to the woods we headed...

We grabbed a camp spot on the river, at the trailhead to Bagby Hot Springs.  Not quite as magical as Cougar, but a perfect way to relax and clean up a bit, too! 

 The hike in to the hot springs was 1.5 miles and so beautiful!

 Blossom quickly made a campsite friend, and as they played all day, Bobby slept and I finished my Tom Robbins book (such a fun book, but a very slow read - it took me about 6 weeks to get through!).  It was the break we all needed to unwind.

After a couple nights at Bagby, we trekked about an hour West to Silver Falls State Park.  We camped here for 2 more nights and explored the beautiful waterfalls that are all such short hikes from one another.

Blossom and I were both enamored with all the wildflowers here.

She even took to drawing imaginary pictures of them as we walked the trails.

Blossom sure was a trooper, even though she didn't feel like one every day.  So much to see at this park left her sometimes feeling like she was all done with hiking!  But she kept finding new fun discoveries around each corner that helped her continue on.

This was such a lovely park!  It was also very crowded with other Summer travelers, and a good transition back to the road.

Nantahala Gorge

Before Summer is officially over, we stole away to the mountains for a weekend.  I have called Bryson City, NC home before, and it was great to go back for a visit! 

We got a great cabin in the woods, right on a creek outside of Bryson City.  I could have easily hung out just at the cabin the entire weekend!

The cabin area had lots of little fun things to poke around and explore.

We did go have some adventures, though! 

We went hiking at Deep Creek in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

It was the perfect weekend to go as Labor Day had past, but "leaf" season hasn't started yet.  The weather was still perfectly summer-like, but we weren't surrounded by other visitors!

The boys and I rented inflatable kayaks and boated down the Nantahala River in the Nantahala Gorge.  No photos of that, as the camera surely would have been soaked over that 3 hour ride!

On the last day, we had planned to go back to Deep Creek and go tubing, but the kids were worn out!  Instead, we drove back down into the Gorge and just relaxed in the river, watching boaters and rafters float by, while we enjoyed locally-made ice cream sandwiches - yum!

Family Camping

We just came home from a lovely weekend camping with some other sweet families!

We were at the Briar Bottom Campground near Micaville, NC.  The kids loved exploring the woods and finding all sorts of mushrooms and creatures.

We all went on a waterfall hike.  The little ones stayed at the bottom of the falls, while the older kids hiked to the top.

Reed even got in some push-ups and a refreshing shower!

A neighboring campground offered ranger programs, so a few of the parents and all the kids walked down to learn about "skulls and skins".

General resting and silliness was had, late night rummy and spades were played, campfire songs and good food were shared!

I was sad to leave and I'm already looking forward to next year's campout!

Gray Fossil Dig

Just over the Tennessee border, in the town of Gray, is an active fossil dig.  The younger kids and I had a really fun day today accompanying Clay's high school Earth Science group on a field trip to the dig site.

The DOT was actually bulldozing for a new road and starting seeing bones.  They explained this is quite common, and they have paleontologists that routinely come check it out, usually finding bones as old as the Ice Age.  At this site, researchers found bones that were even older, back when this part of the country was very warm (they found an alligator)... so cool!  They have also discovered two new (extinct) species at this dig site - new kinds of red panda and badger.  Also prehistoric bears, tapirs, a mastadon, etc.

We had a great tour guide show us the active dig areas and patiently answer questions from all the kids, including Blossom asking things like, "When will it be Saturday?" and "What will happen if it's night and a girl comes out of a volcano that comes out of a mountain, that comes out of a rock?"  Hahaha!

The guide said she was very impressed with our group.  She said most teens come through and are very disinterested (or at least trying to act like it), and don't pay attention, just goofing off the entire tour.  Our group was asking lots of questions and actually listening (yay homeschoolers!)

The labs are inside the adjoining museum.  Researchers were busy cleaning and examing bones.  It was pretty neat to be able to see this work in person.  To preface this photo, I'll say that whenever Clay saw me snapping a photo, he decided to be totally goofy, so half of the photos I came home with look like this:

The museum was small, but pretty neat.  Some of the kids brought home applications to volunteer as site workers this Summer!

No one in the group had to be home yet, so we decided to spend more time in Tennessee.  We headed to Bays Mountain.  It's only a $4 entry per car, and it was really beautiful!  There was a lot to do there, and we picked the ropes course for this group, and a quick walk to see some of the nature center animals.  We had hoped to visit the planetarium at the end, but the teens found a really great hike, so we followed their lead on that one.

The low ropes course was intended for team building.  The kids had a blast on it!

On the hike, the boys had discovered what looks to be an old dam or bridge maybe.  It is all surrounded by forest now, but apparently used to have a road, as they also found a car at the bottom of it.  The whole structure was semi-dilapidated, which I guess makes it all the more desirable to a teenage boy!

ZB was not allowed to go on top of the structure (lots of holes over a pretty big drop), so she settled with just striking some poses next to it ;)

The group of boys (7 of them, I believe) went off to explore the woods on their own for a while, and ZB found her inner mountain goat and was rock climbing all over the place!  It was really the perfect place for it.

If you ever find yourself near the Tri-Cities area of Tennessee, and have a couple hours to spare, I highly recommend checking out the dig site or Bays Mountain.  I'm sure we'll be back!

One Warm Day

We had one blissfully warm day here in the mountains this weekend.  I think it was in the 60s!!  We soaked up every minute of sunshine that was possible. 

Bobby, Blossom and I took the short drive to Warren Wilson to hike along the creek.  I can't believe it's been years since I've been here - it's SUCH a great hike with kids.  It was warm enough that Blossom even dipped her feet in the water (very quickly!).

It's a neat hike because there are plenty of interesting spots along the way.  There are big rocks to climb on, a small bamboo "jungle", farm animals, and even a sandy beach if you hike far enough.

Yup, Blossom loves her some real river sand!  Shoes came off... she did not want to leave.  We had to pry her away as the sun started to set, since we knew that meant the end to the glorious warm day and back to the chilly Winter.

A Mica Hike

Mica was our first choice for Blossom's name.  Boy or girl, didn't matter, we loved the name.  When she was born, it just didn't seem to fit, and we obviously didn't use it.  But I still love the name.  When we went on a rock & mineral hike in Burnsville with Clay's Earth Science class this week, there was mica EVERYWHERE!  Little slivers and big chunks, it sparkled along the whole trail.

I loved getting to show Blossom what it was, and she loved collecting the shiny pieces of rock nearly looked like little pieces of glass.  However, she doesn't have nearly the attention span for an entire rock observing hike, so she was quickly distracted by pretty plants and climbing rocks.

The teens had been studying various types of rocks and minerals, and were eager to find some treasures of their own. 

We hiked into Ray Mine, which is an old mica mine.  Well, we didn't go *into* the mines, that would of course be ridiculously dangerous.  We hiked around them, peered down some old mine shafts and
poked around the creek for rocks washed down from the mountain top.

The class came equipped with rock hammers and axes for getting inside large rocks to identify the minerals within.  They even let Blossom help (I love these guys :)

Hopefully we'll get sneak in some more Winter hikes on the rare sunny days!

Drenched at the Swimming Hole

Notice the title was not "IN" the swimming hole, just "AT" the swimming hole.  I left Bobby with his newly dumped pile of free mulch (thanks Buncombe County!)... seriously, it's like an early birthday present for the man!

We drove a half hour out of Asheville to just outside Hot Springs, NC to do a fun swimming hole hike.  The river did seem awfully high, but we kept meeting hikers that would pass our little group saying, "It will be fine.  The river gets wide and shallow further up."

So we kept hiking.  About a mile in, we start to feel rain.  Then a group of hikers come the other direction saying that the hole was way too deep and current too strong - not safe to swim today!  As our group stood on the trail and talked about what to do, the rain became harder.  It was obvious after only a couple minutes that we needed to start heading back!

Then it really came down!  Not in a miserable way.  Once you're good and soaked with rain, and it's not too cold or anything, there's not much you can do but keep hiking and chatting and occasionally ducking under a thick leaf cover for some temporary respite.  When we emerged into the parking area, I couldn't think of anything else to do beside start singing, "I can see clearly now, the rain is gone... I can see all obstacles in my way!  Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind, It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day!"

Because seriously, when you looked all around, there *were* nothing but blue skies!  Rain storms are crazy here.  After a good dry-off, we had the brilliant idea that hey - we are already soaking, but kinda chilly... and we're right near Hot Springs... hmmm... may as well be warm and soaking, right?

So, we found a swimming hole after all.  Restorative, mineral-filled waters welcomed us, and we'll have to try that hike another (drier) day.