Dinosaur Valley State Park

We went to Dinosaur Valley State Park this last week, and I would recommend it to anyone. It was great! They even have camping, and I want to go camp there. First we went to look at the dinosaur foot prints by the swimming hole. That's this first picture. You can kind of see the footprints, but it's hard to see in the picture.

 

 



 You should have seen us. We had two moms with six kids. Two of the children were babies strapped on to each of us mothers. The path down to the swimming hole wasn't extremely well marked, and there were a few paths people had made coming away from the pool. Going down was a little difficult. We had to navigate past some big rocks and slippery areas. But going back up was even better. I just wish we had a video of the whole shebang. We ended up trying another path hoping it would be easier to ascend. Nope. We ended up climbing up the face of a cliff (almost). Can't you just see us? Oh, we also had a puppy with us. So here we are with our babies strapped on to us, four other small children, and a puppy. Climbing this rock face! By the time we realized what we got ourselves into it was too late to turn around. So we just continued on handing children and puppies to each other and trying to climb without squishing the babies. Oh, the memories. But we made it. I think we should be awarded a wilderness explorer merit badge just for making that climb.

Next we went to find more dinosaur tracks. These had to be excavated from underneath tons of dirt. How did they even know they would find anything? We hopped over the stream on some big rocks. It was kind of fun. The tracks were on the other side. We found some pools that were once connected to the river, but since there is very little water right now the water had receded so the pools weren't connected to anything anymore. In the pools were some little fish and tadpoles. One small pool had tadpoles galore.

On we hiked for a while and found the best area for wading and playing in the water. We took off our shoes and socks, and the water felt amazing! I don't know how long we stayed there. At least two hours, it seems. It was so beautiful. Just playing in the stream made the hour-and-a-half drive worth it. I love being in nature. It is one of the few places where I feel truly happy. It restores my soul.