On the second morning, I had arranged for us to drive to a nearby ranch for a horseback ride. Hadley is pretty into horses, and was really looking forward to getting to ride a real horse (other than in a circle on a field trip). We found the place, but we got there a little early and had to wait for a slow group to return, so we sat on the porch and surveyed the place. The kids enjoyed listing all of the animals they saw: cows, horses, donkeys, goats, chickens, dogs, and cats. The dogs included a couple of super-relaxed, ancient-looking sheep dogs and a pretty chill puppy.
Finally, it was our turn to get on the horses! This was the highlight of H's trip, can you tell? O wasn't so sure about the whole thing, but his horse, Sundance, was the calmest and slowest horse in the bunch, often bringing up the slow rear. H was on Corny, who was kind of a grump, according to our guide, so she was mostly on a lead just behind the guide.
J was on Scout, a handsome pinto, and I got Scrappy, who did not like to be stuck behind slowpoke Sundance. As we got started, Scrappy overtook Sundance and butted back into the line in front of him. Scrappy also enjoyed eating a lot of grass just off the trail. One time Scrappy tried to butt in front of Corny, but Corny actually kicked back at Scrappy, hence the grumpy reputation.
Overall, we had a great ride. They have 700 acres, so there was a lot of variety to see. We crossed a dry creek bed twice, and it was entertaining to see and hear the horses picking their way across the rocks. On the whole, the horses seemed to know the route pretty well and didn't require much guidance, making for a calm and memorable hour at the reins.
After our horse excursion, we took the long way back to the cabin and stopped for lunch in Harrison at Neighbor's Mill, recommended by the ranch owner. Since it was a fine day, we opted to eat lunch outside. The food was tasty (they make their own bread), and we realized that this was our first "eat in" restaurant experience since the pandemic started!
That afternoon called for some more R&R time in the hammock and/or porch. The next morning we planned another hike, to be followed by an afternoon at the river. The hike was to Whitaker Point, also known as Hawksbill Crag. The gravel road to the trailhead went straight up the mountain, and was the steepest drive in recent memory. After some confusion about which side of the parking lot was the trail we were looking for (thanks to poor signage and vague wording in our guidebook), we started our hike with our fingers crossed.
The hike went down for a while to cross another dry creek bed and then climbed back up to follow a ridge line to a prominent chunk of rock overlooking the surrounding valley. Along the way, we saw more picturesque combinations of trees and boulders with panoramic views. We were reassured by some hikers that we were on the right trail, but none of these were the crag we were looking for.
One of our favorite tree/rock combos was this balance beam set up, which made our gymnast's eyes gleam. We all tried it, but only the true gymnast made it across, although I think she was on all fours for a bit. In our defense, trees are round and this beam moved slightly up and down about six feet off the ground...
At long last, we found the Hawksbill Crag! Does it look like a Hawksbill?
After a brief celebration, we rewound the hike back to the car (thankful we got an early start as the hike back was getting way more populated) and headed back to the cabin for lunch and a change to our swimsuits. The river was nearly empty, so the adults set up some camp chairs in a primo spot in the shade of the bridge with our feet in the river, while the kids played.
We brought our net and bucket to catch tadpoles and minnows. Rocks were skipped, "islands" were explored, and bodies were submerged. That last part sounds weird, but I just mean that we walked in the water until our shoulders were under to cool off. All the pictures show shallows, but there were some deeper parts. I didn't take my phone to the river, so all of these pics are courtesy of J.
The last day was rainy in the morning, which suited us just fine. We did laundry to pack up clean clothes, and had a relaxing day at the cabin. We also relocated the hammock to be under the porch, which was pretty awesome to lay in while listening to the soft pitter patter of rain.
While it wasn't quite a vacation from the kitchen, we did make oven s'mores. I think this might even be better than fireside s'mores, especially with dark chocolate. Mmmm...
Our trip was a much needed recharge of our COVID-quarantine batteries. It was very relaxing, socially distanced, and yet we enjoyed getting out and seeing beautiful scenery and not sweating buckets. The kids even said they'd like to live there! I think we might come back some time in the spring or early summer when there would be more waterfalls and the river would be higher for canoeing. We've only just scratched the surface of the Buffalo National River!
