Grimes Glen

The kids and I went to this great little spot about an hour south of our house. It is a well hidden gem. Off the fairly busy main street of a very small town, is a dead end street with a small parking lot at the end. From the parking lot you can follow a trail up a relatively small stream to a couple of striking waterfalls.
Here is a picture from the footbridge (shown below), looking upstream.












This is also from the footbridge (looking downstream). Check out the tree sticking out of the bank of the stream. As I looked at this tree I wondered why it didn't fall into the stream.












Here is the footbridge. It isn't quite as rickety as it looks, but it does bounce as you walk across it.

























This is a cool little rock bridge that someone made, leading to a small, wooden bridge.












A little ways down from the little stone and wooden bridges is a patio. There is a large area covered with large, flat pieces of shale with stone benches around the edge. Kyle and Erin are standing near a small fire pit.












This little guy was hanging out in the fire pit.












This is the first of the falls that we saw. I think I read somewhere that it is 60 feet high.

















As we were walking along we saw a lot of wildlife. I almost stepped on this critter as he skittered across the path. He stopped on leaf and let me get a good picture.












This is the second waterfall we came to.


















The plunge pool at the base of this fall was much deeper than water at the base of the first one. There was also a cave...


















On our way over to check out the cave, Erin and I saw this creepy creature. I am not sure what it is, but I didn't want to get too close.












Here is a close up of the face of the wall near the cave. I love that you can see the layering so clearly in the sedimentary rock. If I was still teaching this would be a must do field trip!












While we were wading back across the plunge pool, two young guys came along and climbed up this "hill." There were ropes anchored at various points that they grabbed onto and pulled themselves up. Kyle was very disappointed when I told him it was too dangerous to continue. There are apparently one or two additional waterfalls further upstream, but the climb up is extremely dangerous as you can see from the picture.












Here's a path across the edge of the plunge pool. I opted for a wetter, but more stable route.












I don't know what these flowers are but they sure were pretty.












The kids had fun just playing in a shallow pool near the "patio" pictured earlier. I guess Kyle was demonstrating that he has rocks in his head. Actually he was hiding from the camera.












Sarah found a horse shoe.












Erin posed as we crossed one of the bridges on the way back...












...then Sarah had to pose as well.












I took this from the wooden bridge looking toward the stone bridge.












Erin found a thinking spot on a stone bench.












Erin being Erin...












...and Sarah being Sarah.












Kyle with the rocks in his head again!












We missed this tiny waterfall as we were walking upstream, but we did catch it as we went back downstream.


















The last two pictures here were taken from the edge of the parking area looking downstream.


























This adventure was so fun, that the kids actually thanked me for taking them there. They were pretty exhausted though and all 3 slept almost the whole way home.