A Beautiful Hike

Hi All!  Hope you are having a productive week, I sure am! (finally!)  When we went camping a friend found a great family friendly hike.  If you started from the camp it was about 3 miles round trip to a swinging bridge.  We did the hike twice, the first time from camp, the second we drove to the trail head.   Both times we went with a bunch of monkey's who had a blast collecting pretty flowers and Sassafrass leaves and roots.  I was amazed at how good all the kids did, they ranged in age from 12-2. Here are a few pictures.

fern grotto

more of the fern grotto

these are wild Mountain Laural, they were everywhere, but one hillside in particular had tons of them, unfortunately most were done blooming.

view of the river from the bridge. You can just barely see the fork in the river, the beach we swam on was off the right fork, just up from this bridge.

the swinging bridge

see how clear the water was?  It was like this deeper out too, it was so pretty, and yes cold!

The kids really enjoyed trying to skip rocks here, and there were plenty of good skipping stones!  The kids enjoyed the bridge, and we adults got chuckles out of the older kids who dared each other to go across alone.  Even tho they are "big" kids they still were a bit nervouse going over on their own.  My hubby had a grand time teasing me about the bridge messing up my equilibrium.  I get sea sick really easy, really really easy.  For about a half hour after being on the bridge I still felt like I was swinging.  It didn't make me sick, just made me feel funny. 
All in all, it was a really fun camping trip, I definitely want to do it again!
Melissa