Showing posts with label Hikes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hikes. Show all posts

Thursday, April 19, 2012

A Canoe and a Refuge plus a Car and a Geo-cache equals BIG Adventures

A while back DH and I enjoyed a weekend filled with our kind of adventures.  We loaded up the Rav4 with our canoe, the dogs, the GPS and the Geo-caching bag and escaped the monotony of every day life for a few hours.  First stop was the Waffle House for breakfast, followed by a trip to the Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge where we hopped in the canoe for a trip around the river.

Here are a few  bunch of photos of our trip....

These are Buzzards
They are BIG
I have never seen buzzards (live) before I moved to Texas

It was a very pretty day

The gorgeous views along the river



The water was like glass... a mirror

This little guy was on a branch that was hanging way out over the river
Thank goodness he didn't fall in!

Peaceful

Tranquil

Relaxing
 
More buzzards

Ah... it's almost like I am there again


We saw all kinds of birds and animals in the wild 
It is a refuge after all!



What a great way to spend the first half of the day.  
Did I mention how relaxing and peaceful it was?  

The next part of the day included a road trip about an hour or so west of Fort Worth out near Mineral Wells, Texas; where we included Geo-caching into seeing some new places. 

We searched and found several Geo-caches, more than I have photos of.  


One of the Geo-caches took us to Mineral Wells Fossil Park
We had no idea this place existed so we weren't prepared for digging. We will be going back sometime though!


Another Geo-cache took us to a really nice, old, cemetery where the bluebonnet's were in full bloom


Daisy enjoying the view


Every Geo-cache we go on  takes us to places we would not have known about otherwise, usually with history or interesting artifacts.  We have been on so many fun adventures since we have taken up Geo-caching as our fun hobby.  You have to try it sometime.  

Go here for more information

I should tell you about my getting lost adventure now.  Yes... we did get lost for a time!  One of our Geo-caches we wanted to find included a short hike through a wooded area that gained an elevation of about 900 ft.  With Geo-caching you need a GPS to find the coordinates, and you learn that it is often a very good idea to mark on your GPS where your car is located before venturing out so that you can find your way back.  

Well..... I had my handy GPS, and knowing how important it is to mark where we park, somehow it slipped my mind to do so on this one.  So we venture off into the woods.  We enjoy our hike and find the cache and start heading back before I realize nothing looks familiar and we are beginning to follow a path that is taking us in the wrong direction.  We start back tracking a bit but still end up taking another wrong path.  DH suggests I pull up the coordinates where our car is parked and I have to tell him I didn't mark it.  That didn't go over so well! 

Now it is a pretty hot and humid day and we had set out on this adventure during the hottest part of the day and didn't bring a lot of water with us knowing it wouldn't take us very long.   So.. after quite sometime of seemingly walking in circles and becoming hotter and thirstier (water was gone at this point), DH suggests we go back to the Geo-cache find which is plugged into the GPS, and start all over again.  I was becoming frightened we would never get out this wooded hillside!  We located the cache and started out again only paying more attention to our surroundings and what looked familiar and what didn't, when we realized we had earlier missed a path that we had come in on which lead us finally in the right direction toward the right path that lead us to our car.  Whew!  Lesson learned!  We would have been OK even if we hadn't been able to get out of there because we did have the GPS and could have told rescuers our coordinates... However, ALWAYS mark your car's location!  I probably won't ever make that mistake again! 

I look forward to the next time we can get out and enjoy all the fun adventures just waiting for us.  



Sunday, September 11, 2011

Fairly recent Montana Adventures..... July is recent right?

I mentioned previously that I needed to update my blog with our latest adventures.  The unfortunate thing is that it dates back to July.  The other thing is that we went on MANY adventures and I took a lot of photos, so I will have to break up this post into two or three different parts.  Please bear with me.

As you know we are moving away from Montana.  We created a bucket list of things we wanted to do and places we wanted to visit before we leave.  Our bucket list included hikes, Geo-caching, road trips, and canoe trips to name a few.  Each weekend we try to spend a little time doing something towards completing our list.



Over the July 4th weekend we chose to do many of the items on our list.  We went hiking, located and found several Geo-caches, as well as spent time in the canoe.  Here are few pictures of some places we visited and sights we saw.

This is a hike we went on.  These falls are located above Hyalite Reservoir in the Hyalite Canyon of the Gallatin National Forest.  As you can see the falls are gorgeous!  

This is another hike we went on.  It is also located in Hyalite Canyon.  This is an impressive rock formation with names etched into it dating back to the early 1800's.  

A closer view

Daisy and I in front of History Rock

Our adventurous Dog

Scenery on the History Rock trail

As we were traveling down through the Paradise Valley towards Yellowstone N.P., we decided to stop at this Geo-cache which is actually an Earth-Cache (look it up on Geo-caching.com).  Now this is something to see and learn about!  This is why we enjoy Geo-caching.  

This Eocene dike was created about 30 million years ago. This wall of black basalt rock was injected as molten magma into a crack in horizontally bedded volcanic conglomerates.  Conglomerate is like cement.  

I loved learning about this!!

This is another hike we went on.  It is a petrified forest located in the Paradise Valley heading towards Yellowstone N.P.  

Scenery along the trail to the Petrified Forest

More scenery

Billy & the girls found a comfy spot to rest

Me near the top of the mountain

Me Again!

The Petrified Forest trail is an interpretive trail that informs you of what you will see each step of the way.  

In these alcoves you can find parts of petrified trees

Daisy found the shade

Here is a petrified tree stump

A better view

We didn't get to finish the hike as a storm was coming in and we needed to get off the mountain.  
It was a great hike though, with really beautiful scenery. 

The Paradise Valley is just that... Paradise!  It is a gorgeous area.  If you ever get up this way, I recommend taking this drive as you head towards Yellowstone.  

This post covers the adventures we had over the July 4th weekend.  

Watch for post number two coming soon, for more exciting adventures brought to you by ME!!  


Wednesday, August 11, 2010

July 4th Weekend

I know it's like way late, but I wanted to post some of our pictures from our July 4th weekend.

I've had a couple days off from school until my next classes begin so I decided to spend some time editing some of my photos.

We went camping up Hylite Canyon for the July 4th weekend.  Here are a few of my favorites..... 


Hylite Resevoir - A view from the trail

Bill, Daisy & Abbie on the trail

Hylite Resevoir

A cool fort or a blind that someone had started

My favorite view of Hylite Resevoir

Our home away from home - Bill fishing in background

The only fish that was caught was mine! It was yummy too!

Daisy loving to explore

Daisy & Abbie exploring

A view of Hylite Creek

We had a really nice, relaxing weekend enjoying nature. 

I will be posting more of my photos on my photography blog so make sure you check it out!