El Dorado

First of all I have some major catch up to do.  I usually don't let it get this bad, but I think the fact that we pushed two trips back to back, combined with Finn's absolute horror when I sit at the computer has gotten me into this hole.  Which brings me to the Second of All, a thing I am so excited about! See that post down there, "Dream House"? I totally posted that from my phone.  I know I'm probably like three years late to the party, but the whole "mobile blogging" has been eluding me.  Finally this weekend I discovered the Blogger app and in a mere two minutes I've got a post published right from my phone.  This gives me great hope that I will keep more abreast of the little things instead of only making it to the computer to post trip recaps.  And I'm thinking whatever I get up on Instagram can just be copied right over here. Boo-yah.


So before there was England, before there was Bryce Canyon, before there was Chicago, there was a little old place we like to call El Dorado Canyon, because that's its name.

Dan has been a machine planning all these hikes for our family.  It's been really fun to see what he's come up with every weekend when we hit the trail.  It was the maiden voyage for the baby backpack and it was a success.  What's crazy though is that in a few months we'll be buying another because we're going to have two babies.  TWO babies.

Wow.

Things are going to get really interesting around here.


But El Dorado Canyon was my favorite hike yet. It was also our longest.

This is a rare glimpse of Max's front side, though he's not really pleased about it.

Portions of this canyon trail have some steep drop offs.  Dan and I did a lot of hand and breath holding.

The kids loved that there were so many places off trail to climb and explore.

The views were spectacular.

This canyon is a popular spot for rock climbers.  Crazy rock climbers who are tiny specks on the sides of sheer cliffs.

Do you see him?

                                         

They even have telescopes so hikers can try to get a better view of what crazy looks like.

And just behind Dan in the picture above is a hillside covered in boulders.

I've really never seen anything like it.  I couldn't help but think if those guys at the top started rolling, we would die.

Luckily, they didn't and we didn't.

We "encouraged" the kids when their legs got tired with food.  I love it when Max calls it Pirate Booties.

One consequence of these hikes has been seeing the kids, especially Ava, be more adventurous.

As Dan always says, "The only guarantee on a Colton family hike is whining."

 But if my memory serves me right, there actually wasn't too much on this day.  And we've added El Dorado Canyon on our Do Again list.