Sunny Days!

Ahhhh, the sun has decided to grace us with her appearance just in time for the holiday weekend. We took full advantage of this opportunity and went on a impromptu hike yesterday. Actually, the whole trip was unexpected. I wanted to go to Bear Mountain and instead ended up at Sterling Forest State Park. We've never visited this park even though it's next to Harrimon State Park and Bear Mountain.

What a beauty! I can't believe we've never gone through this forest. The area is so large that you have to drive to the different parts of the park. The woods are so beautiful and pristine that you forget that civilization is near by. Dan and I have to come back here to do some serious hiking. Anyone want to babysit????

We made it to the visitor center, which had a beautiful lake behind it that you were able to hike. Once we were done checking out the visitor's center and got a map to the hikes available by the lake, we were off to our hike. We really weren't prepared for the hike. I was wearing flat shoes, that fortunately had a nice grip to the ground, but I felt every step I took. Will was wearing sandals, but they at least had a good grip to them. Dan was the one that was most prepared.

Either way, the hike was very short only be 0.4 miles long. The seclusion of the trail amazed me because right after taking a few steps you were what it seemed like the middle of the woods. At first, I was concerned that the hike would be a little too much for Will since it wasn't a flat trail and there were many rocks. As always, he amazes me. He was great. The spots that were difficult for him to go through, we carried him. Otherwise, he hiked it himself. He even got to go under a huge tree that had fallen. He loved it!

The end of this trail was just beautiful. We were able to sit down right at the edge of the lake. We took off our shoes and soaked our feet. The water was cool, crisp, and just so inviting. Will loved wetting his feet. If he had his way, he would have gone in. Unfortunately, we couldn't let him go because we were sitting on big rocks and it was to slippery to run around. He didn't seem to mind. He sat there with us and soaked in the sun.

Our little impromptu trip was great. We all had so much fun. The trip reignited Dan's love of hiking and there will be more trips coming up. I leave you with some pictures. We didn't have our camera with us, but snapped some pictures with our cell phones.



Enjoy!