Columbus Day

Thank you Christopher Columbus for discovering America and giving us a day off to celebrate! We too felt like explorers because we went on one last hike of the season before the rain starts. Yesterday Nate had the day off of work, and although Ty should have gone to school we pulled him out so he could be with the family. We headed down to Cascade Head and took two cars. We parked one at the top of the mountain and one at the bottom. Here we are all packed in the car ready for the hike:

The hike we did was called:

It was a 3 mile hike downhill. It started off hiking through green dense forest. I sure miss the fall colors around here, it would have been neat to see oranges, yellows and reds! But everything here is GREEN! It too is beautiful, love it!

I carried Caleb in my pack. Mara walked most of the way but when she needed a rest she rode in the backpack on daddy's back, but we still needed someone to carry our backpack: TY!

What a strong kid! He carried this heavy pack the entire 3 mile hike! What a great hiker!

Caleb started off on my back, but once we got to the open grassy area it was windy and a bit chilly. So I moved him to my front and zipped him in my jacket. He was so snuggly warm he slept the entire hike! He missed it all!

Little Sweetie just loves hiking!

Once we got through the forest it opened up to a spectacular view of the ocean. We could see all the way down the coast to Lincoln City, and the estuary to the west.

We hiked along this grassy knoll and somewhere in the middle of the grass we sat down and enjoyed our picnic lunch. Yes, it was very windy and a little chilly. But we could still see the sunshine and it was a nice day.

What's Mara so happy about? Caterpillars! We saw nine caterpillars along the trail. They were bright orange and black and Mara loved picking them up and holing them in her hand!

Ty loved looking through his binoculars along the hike! We were able to see (even without binoculars) elk and a red tailed hawk.

Amazing view!

Where's Ty? Hiking in the grass!

The pictures don't do justice for what we saw! It would have been even better had we had blue skies and more sunshine. But we can't complain it was still good weather.

The end of the hike was through more trees and green ferns.

Good bye hike! It was a fun day!

A little clip or our hiking buddy: