Living Orange: Mountain Trip

On Saturday, we all headed over to Grandfather Mountain. Unfortunately a lot of our group gets carsick!!! Johnny and Anakah had to punt about halfway there because they had to pull over at least three times for Fin (though I don't think he actually threw up, he felt rough and they hadn't even gotten to the really curvy part yet.). Elizabeth also felt really carsick but was able to tough it out and meet us at Grandfather Mountain. Next time they will all be taking the larger and less curvy highway to get there!!!

Neither Brian nor I had ever been to Grandfather Mountain before. You have to pay to drive up the mountain (I think it was $18 for adults and $8 for kids over 3). At the gate, you get a CD to listen to as you drive up the mountain telling you about all the little things to see.

We stopped about half way up the mountain at Split Rock and met up with Elizabeth, Ryan, and their kids.

Then we continued on to the animal habitats. They have bears, otters, bald eagles, and a few more animals on display. When we got there, they were rounding up the bears into their cages so they could clean the pond, but I managed (kind of) a quick picture of Carter and Brian with a black bear.

And then we drove up to the top of the mountain to walk on the Mile High Swinging Bridge. The boys were thrilled to use their Camelbaks and I think Rylan drank his entire bladder in 10 minutes.

Neither boy was scared at all about walking across the bridge. It's really not that high - only about 80 feet above a chasm. The bridge is 228 feet long and leads to Linville Peak.

We did some rock hopping around Linville Peak. Rylan was a little more cautious and stuck with me but Carter had almost no fear and Brian had to make sure Carter didn't try to go on by himself. The peak area isn't huge and there are definitely places that are dangerous.

I love these family pictures!

Elizabeth and George didn't cross the bridge and Ryan and Henry didn't walk around on the peak. So we headed back after a little exploring to meet back up with them.

This boy is too cute with his hoodie and Camelback!!!

We all drove part way back down the mountain to have lunch in the Cliffside picnic area.

There were lots of fun rocks to climb on around here.

Ryan took a family photo for us - love that he captured that sign in the foreground :)

Elizabeth and Ryan decided to head back to the cabin at this point so their boys could get naps. We decided to do a little hiking before heading back.

We didn't go all that far but went up the Grandfather Extension Trail for a bit.

We had left the carriers back at the cabin so the boys had to hike (or be carried). They did awesome though and hiked a lot before we turned around and started carrying them more.

Carter took the lead and I kept having to force him to wait up for Rylan (and Brian who was with him). Even though he's slower, Rylan was on a mission and took the challenge of hiking very seriously.

I love that the boys love hiking (even if a lot of their hiking is often on our backs)!

After our hike, we decided to leave the mountain because the boys seemed like they were getting pretty tired. We stopped for gas when we got off the mountain and I decided to get a treat of Cheetos for Carter (Rylan was already asleep). Carter didn't make it too long and may of still had a Cheeto in his mouth when he passed out :)

We met up with Johnny and Anakah and their kids at the Mast General Store Annex in Valle Crusis. We let each of the kids pick out one thing from the barrels of candy. Rylan got a bag of dinosaur gummies and Carter picked out a bag of candy corn.

We headed back to the cabin after that and started up a fire since it actually wasn't raining. There was a nice firepit up a short path from the back of the cabin.

It took awhile to get the fire going due to very wet wood but the guys got it going while girls watched the kids and made dinner. I think they may of "had trouble" so they could drink some beer and be by themselves for a bit :)

Around the house the rhododendron bushes were in full bloom. We always seem to miss the bloom time when hiking but got to see quite a bit this year.

There was a tiny pond behind the house as well with lots of large tadpoles. The kids had fun searching for them since they kept hiding!

We had some more games of cornhole.

Luckily no one got nailed with a bean bag!

Somehow the kids collected themselves on the backsteps and had a "who can be the loudest" screaming competition.

George was hanging out with me and after a minute started joining in.

Since all the kids were in one place, we convinced them to let us get a group picture. (After a couple of shots, Carter lost his grip on George and he dove to the ground - luckily he was fine!)