The caves are super cool, but the hike is about 1.5 miles straight up a mountain. I somehow convinced all my kids to come--Lynlee (8), Reid (6), Sadie (5), and Tessa (3). A sign along the trail caught Lynlee's eye, it said "Danger, falling rocks!" She started to cry--"I don't want to get crushed by falling rocks!" Sadie and Tessa soon joined in. Using my expert daddy skills, I calmed them all down and we continued up the mountain.
A few minutes later we came to the next sign, which read "Extreme Danger, falling rocks! Do not stop on red lines!" Lynlee started wailing at this point and, to make matters worse, every time we came to a red line we all got yelled at to hurry up and get off the line. However, this did increase our pace up the mountain.
The next sign along the trail read "Danger, rattlesnake habitat! Stay on the trail!" Lynlee lost it again, "Daddy! Daddy! I don't want to get bit by a rattlesnake! It could kill me!" I defused this one by saying if you stay on the trail you will be fine. I also promised her she wouldn't see any rattlesnakes (a promise I'd later regret).
The next sign showed a stick man slipping and falling off a cliff. You can guess the reaction to that one. But we were almost to the cave and surely we had seen all the signs by this time. But of course there had to be one more sign educating hikers about the fact that they are hiking in an active earth quake zone. I had to laugh, my poor little girls were an emotional wreak by the time we reached the top.
The caves were awesome and the kids had a lot of fun. However, on the way down we saw two rattlesnakes just off the trail. So much for my earlier promise! Reid thought they were cool and I managed to grab him before he could do something stupid like poke them with a stick. However, the girls started to cry again. "Dad, you promised we wouldn't see any rattlesnakes! You lied to us! Why would you take us on such a dangerous hike! We could have all been killed! And the Oscar goes to …"
Reid and I thought it was a fun hike, but I think it will be awhile before I convince the girls to go on a hike with me again!
Here are some pictures from the hike:
