Beth was feeling a little under the weather, so she and baby Susan stayed in the room, while the rest of us went for a hike this morning. A 6 mile drive on paved roads leads to a 6 mile drive on a dirt road to the trail head of the Grapevine Hills Trail. Described in the brochure as a 1 mile one way easy trail following a sandy wash through massive granite-like boulders to a low pass and at the end is an optional 100 yard walk along a ridge to see a picturesque window of boulders.
In reality, the 1 mile part was right, but that 100 yard thing turned into a 1/4 mile hands and knees scramble up the side of the valley wall. The view from the top was worth it (see photo above), but the picturesque window of boulders was literally crawling with 8th graders, about 80 of them. They were there on a field trip that the students of a private school in Austin take every year to learn geology along with math and stuff.
After lunch we were going to drive a couple miles down the road and do part of the Lost Mine Trail to get a 2 mile hike. Everyone wanted to go this time and that meant taking two cars, which Donna and I really didn’t want to do. I looked through the trail book and found a 1.6 mile loop that started right here in the lodge parking lot. The first half or so was all uphill, gaining a couple hundred feet of elevation and at this point I think there were a couple wishing that they hadn’t come. The last part was all downhill and the group stayed pretty much together for that.
After dinner plans included a 1/2 mile walk downhill to see a ranger demonstration and then maybe a walk back up.
Tomorrow we have a dawn launch for the drive to Dallas where we’ll spend the night before flying home. Scott, Beth and the kids start their drive back to Washington State via Golden, NM and Steve heads up the road a couple hundred miles to home.