Joshua Tree and Shadow Cliffs

So when I was a kid, my father and mother took us regularly to Joshua Tree.  What I enjoyed most about those trips was being able to climb over tons of sandstone.  In fact, I remember a number of times where I would try to follow him up the side of a stone wall only to get stuck halfway up.  Another thing I remember about these trips were how much my dad used to like to drive off the beaten path to find "short cuts".  These typically weren't and sometimes meant that we were driving down a Wash that looked like a road.

So on a recent visit to Castle Rocks, both these memories came flooding back.  We thought it would be fun to take the kids across the top and then down the crags that make up the mountain.  To get there meant running out a couple of miles which Emma and Sophie had been itching to do.  We also came across a family of deer on the way out.  The fall colors were definitely on display. 

We were going to take them down the path Beth discovered last month; with the only problem being that we got lost coming down the hill. This meant training the kids how to do a little bit of rock climbing.  Everything went well with only Beth spraining her finger.  Myles especially had a great time, crying after we were done because he wanted to do it again.


Also, on October 31st, we kept the kids home from school and I took the day off so we could go fishing at Shadow Cliffs.  I had heard the trout bit was good due to a recent restocking.  Well we didn't come up skunked; Myles caught his first trout and it was a beauty.  It was about 12 inches long and he reeled it in all by himself!!! 

Last weekend we volunteered setting up for the Save Mt. Diablo , Trail Challenge.  The kids love to help so they definately went to work.  And they got a free running tee-shirt, and Brazen Racing hat out of it to boot.

Finally, I also got around to making pumpkin pie out the pumpkin Myles received at his Smith Family Farms field trip.  It is kind of sad to think that this was the last time our kids would be going on this trip and the last time I would get a pumpkin from there.  You can find my recipe here. 

So many memories have been made the last couple of weeks.  I hope the kids remember them like I remember my Joshua Tree trips with my family.