For the last 20 minutes, the kids were placated by gas station hot dogs. Ew! Not my idea, but it seemed to work.
Once we got there, we went to the visitor center to get our cave pass and ate lunch at the easy Devil's Orchard trailhead.
The kids enjoyed the level, paved loop, but Owen was disappointed that the trail didn't go off into the woods through the dirt. (There are no woods here, but that's what he recalls from previous hikes.)
Then we got back in the car to the Caves Trail. Can you imagine coming across this scenery in your wagon train? Pretty amazing geology.
First stop, Dewdrop Cave. Can you tell that Owen was excited to go down in a cave? Hadley was relegated to the backpack since this trail has a lot more loose rocks and climbing involved.
Next stop was Indian Tunnel, a big lava tube with some skylights (collapses) and a tight exit. Here are the stairs to get down into the tunnel.
The sunlight here is coming through the exit hole (the black spot in the second picture, seen from above). Kudos to the backpack-wearer for eking out of there unscathed.
The walk back from the end of the tunnel is interesting: un-paved, following post markers. But it has quite a view! And Owen enjoyed the freedom to jump from rock to rock instead of having to keep to the path.
Finally, Beauty Cave was so dark that we couldn't see our hands in front of our faces. We had to follow along behind another family with good flashlights because ours wasn't cutting it. The floor was also extremely icy and uneven. Here's Owen starting the ascent back to the surface. Pretty steep!
Hadley got a 40-minute nap in the backpack, but refused to go back to sleep once she was transferred to her carseat for the hour+ ride home. Needless to say, I did not bring enough in-car entertainment!
P.S. I was impressed with Owen's stamina though, since he hiked everything except about 1/4 mile near the end. Maybe we have more hikes in our future this summer!
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