Sleeping Giant State Park

April 27, 2014 We made it all the way up the Tower Trail at Sleeping Giant today for the first time. Stopped lots along the way for snacks and exploring. You know your kids are Frozen obsessed when they repeatedly refer to moss covered rocks as Trolls.

Finding trail markers was so exciting for the kids (….ahem…math & number recognition).

Could these holes visible where the earth has been worn away be worm tunnels?  I really don't know, but we stopped to think about it and remember a video we watched on youtube.

Fiddlehead ferns- fuzzy young ferns that look like the neck of a fiddle, or violin.

 We found some pretty good sized worms by lifting rocks by a little creek.

Oliver insisted we could see our house from this lookout.

Exploring the "castle" at the top of the trail.

On New Year's eve we made a 2014 Bucket List.  

At bedtime we got to check off two goals: "hike up to the tower" and "climb a tree."

 

We also found some super soft moss, a salamander (newt?) under a rotting piece of wood, and a feather, (my first guess based on color was Canadian Goose, but it's probably from a Hawk…that makes much more sense for the area).

We also got to observe the difference between fluffy white clouds, and ominous rain clouds... and how to adjust our speed accordingly!

This kids did great and walked the whole way up by themselves.  They needed help going back down... which was fun for us because not only are our boys very big and heavy, but their pockets were loaded with rocks!

Not very long into the descent, we had a sleeping 2 year old.  So sweet.  Heavy, but sweet.