1st Day of School -our way

Our 1st yr of hs we went on a field trip the first day to the botanical gardens in Denver. We had a great time and it was fun, so it became a tradition. This yr we went to Castle Rock to go Rock hounding near Devil's head. After going all over the mountain on rocky terrain my GPS found Devil's head. Thank goodness too because the directions in the rock hounding book weren't all that great. The dig site was just a mile from this point but we wanted to see what Devil's head was all about first. It said it was only a 1.4 ml hike there I thought no problem. What was I thinking.

Conner's non appropriate clothing and shoes. He had a good time anyway

The hike was great but it was misting and Conner was not dressed appropriately for the weather or the hike. I make a habit of having the kids in charge of their own clothes and if they dress inappropriately the hope is that they learn from this and pay attention to the activity and weather. Obviously I need to take over on this as my boys are still on occasion not paying attention. Anyway. The hike was great. How I missed being on a hike since we really haven't gone on a good hike since moving here over a yr ago, how sad.

We made it all the way to the top of Devils head the only problem is that all that fog was not letting us see the site properly although it was neat to see it that way all on it's own too, know what I mean. There were several clearing's between trees where I thought if it weren't for the fog this would be a amazing overlook not to mention picture. But the fog gave it it's own mystical quality that was interesting, but I still wanted to see all of Castle Rock below me. Wouldn't that have turned out great?

You can click on these resources here. The first is the gov't ran site telling a little about Devil's head and the second is some great pictures taken by some guy that went there. The pictures are great and now I want to go back on a clear day.

http://gorp.away.com/gorp/resource/us_national_forest/co/hik_pi3.htm
http://www.stevegarufi.com/devilshead.htm

My boys just a bit after the start of the trail at a bridge, Conner is a troll hmmm I saw that in a cartoon sometime didn't I?Great rock formations

Isn't this cool? There were several rocks that had this sort of cut out portion where water collected.
We found Raspberry bushes, my boys favorite snack on a hike is wild grown raspberries.
Colin looks through to see if he can find some ripe ones, most were not ready!
Here is what we found, yummmo!!!!!
Another bush,more raspberry hunting. Once he started I couldn't drag him away

On the trail.
Austin inspects a rock formation
Conner does the Crane impression. LOL!!!
Colin found this plant interesting and was so cute about showing it to us. He talked about it in art language that he loves to use and still impresses me.
A pine cone as big as your head is worth a picture

You can see all the mist in all the pictures, it was quite brisk

We thought this was devil's Head, turned out to be the halfway point.
Reading an interpretive sign about the woman who found this site to look for fire's
My cute boys on a rock that looks "like a lounge or couch mom"

Austin found a little cave there.
Can you see it?

The fire lookout post on top of the mountain at the end of the trail.
Stairs you must take to get to the lookout.
As you know I'm a huge fan of signage.
Her is the story of the lady and the start of the fire lookout post.

What a great day, minus the weather. We stopped at the Castle Rock outlet's because Colin really had been wanting a garlic press. Honest I'm not even sure I have any recipe's that I can use the thing but he saw the chef's on Food Network use it all the time so we apparently had an unfit kitchen without it. We were also hungry so we stopped at Red Robin to eat and I found out they got rid of my favorite hamburger (pot roast burger), I was so bummed. Colin loooovvveed his Salmon burger and talked like a chef "The dressing and the grilled salmon make a good combination, the flavors blend so great". HUH???? Where does he come up with this stuff? Oh yeah food network. Austin had an egg on his but it was good and I had these cool garlic fries that we thought we could make at home, everyone loved them. Finally Conner loved our nacho appetizer so much he joined the cooking competition we are going to have by making them.

I think this is a great way to start our school yr. It is so much more fun then separating out supplies like ps. So we are going to start and end the school yr on this note, Field trip time!!!

Vanessa