Birthday Hike

On Rylan's birthday we decided to go hiking.  We had his party the weekend before and the weather finally cooled down so it was a perfect day to go.  Before we had kids, it was Brian and my tradition to go hiking on my birthday.  But the middle of winter is usually too cold for the little ones now.  So maybe hiking can be Rylan's birthday tradition for awhile.

We grabbed our Sunday paper as we headed out around 7 am.  My mom was with us and read the paper in the back with the boys :)

On our way to our first state park, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a birthday doughnut (we did this instead of make more cupcakes).

We got a pack of Munchkins to share - they were super yummy!!!

Our first stop was Fall Creek Falls State Park.  We haven't been back to this park since we moved to Nashville.  It's definitely changed a bit and is now a very popular place to swim in the water ABOVE the waterfall.  The water was low but we still saw a lot of people venturing to the edge.  Crazy!  It was extremely crowded in the parking area but thinned out a lot on the actual hike.

Cane Creek Falls:

Rockhouse Falls:

We hiked about 2 miles round-trip.  I carried Grayson in the backpack for half of the hike and Brian did the second half.  Carter and Rylan did a great job hiking.

Brian and the older boys did some scrambling up a rocky outcrop at an overlook along the trail.

My mom, Grayson, and I decided to watch :)

The boys want this giant rock in our yard!

Fall Creek Falls and Coon Creek Falls were barely more than a trickle.

A picture of the 5 of us!

The swinging bridge may have been the highlight of the hike since the waterfalls were unremarkable.

One more view of Cane Creek Falls:

After Fall Creek Falls SP, we stopped in McMinnville for a late lunch.  Since we were so close, we decided to check out a park we'd never been to before - Rock Island State Park.  Again, it was overrun with people wanting to swim in the river but the one place we stopped forbids swimming because of the currents so it wasn't too bad.

Twin Falls was not lacking in water and made up for the other falls.

Twin Falls is unique and here is the description of it from our guidebook:

Water gushes from a steep hillside, forming a pair of high-volume cataracts rumbling 65 to 80 feet into the Caney Fork River.  The springs did not occur until after the construction of Great Falls Dam.  Collins River is immediately behind the hill from Caney Fork, and it is speculated that, upon its level being elevated, forming Great Falls Lake, water began seeping into caverns thought to be inside the hill.  The water had to go somewhere, so it proceeded to "leak" out the other side.

We all did some rock scramling by the river to check out the falls.  Brian and the big boys went a little further around a bend in the river.

The big boys and my mom:

We had a fun day getting outside!  Rylan seemed to enjoy his birthday as well!!!