Stone Mountain State Park (2011)

Back before the girls we used to go to Stone Mountain State Park and hike. We had hiked to the waterfall and 1 time with Piper on my back we went up the mountain and then back down again but never the full loop. Friday when we saw that the weather was going to be very mild my brother in law, sister in law, and I decided to head there with the girls to check out the water fall.
We parked on the upper part of the park so it was a quick little hike to the top of the water fall.

We made our way down the stairs to see the falls from all the viewing areas.


It was very fun walking with all the kids and exploring nature. We saw the old homestead that they have at the bottom of the mountain. The mountain itself is pretty cool from this angle.

The trail that we were following was a 4.5 mile loop. It said strenuous but a 4, 5, 6, & 7 year old can handle it right? We finished up the lower part of the loop and took a bar/water break before finishing up the last half of the hike.

What are we doing? That sign says Injury or Death Possible! It does say that but from doing both hikes before I knew we would all just be tired. Unless we were mauled by a bear we would make it :)

Straight up the mountain we went. Stair after stair after stair. Addi and Piper leading the way.

Ruby was on my back. Violet and Chloe were doing their very best behind me. Up, up, up. Who knew that 1/4 mile could take this long? Climb, climb, climb. Are we there yet? We laughed that there should be an escalator. Why not?

Still more steps. They were seriously never ending! We climbed 330 stairs. Our legs were all burning. I think it took us almost an hour to complete the hike straight to the top but when we got up there it was so worth the work. I took a ton of pictures at this point because we worked hard to get here.





I remember one of the only signs saying we still had 1.7 miles to go to complete our loop and I just said a silent prayer in my head that it would all be flat :) Violet is quite an eagle eye and noticed this on the trail. What a neat butterfly.

I happened to look behind me and saw my oldest limping. It seems that her shoes were giving her major blisters and she could barely walk. What is a mama to do? Take Ruby out of the sling.

and put Piper in it :)

We did it though! Smiles on their faces still afterwards! Gotta love the littles!

My van has never been such a welcome sight. 4.5 miles took us about 4 hours to do. We took our time and enjoyed the scenery. The girls did fabulously! I wonder if our Ohio family will want to make this a yearly outing :)