Family Hike Night - The Black Forest

This week took us to the Military Reserve area, specifically the Cottonwood Creek Trail and Toll Road Trail.  What a lovely hike!  We really enjoyed this one.  Perhaps it was the variety of terrain, the occassional shade, the meandering creek - or simply because the passages through trees felt a bit east coast like.

A neat plant with berries we first came across.  Any ideas what it is?

The beginning of the trail.

The surroundings changed pretty quickly.

She loves Family Hike Night!  Seriously, she does.

Coming up to cliffs.

Neat lines.

 

Holes in the "rock" - Chris says they are bird holes.  Sure enough, there were tons of birds flying about.

Headed into trees again.

Nice little stream.

Mika liked the stream too.

Bambino likes family hike nigh too.

Pretty flowers.

Thumbs up!  Enjoying the shade!

The trail.

Wild rose bush?

Rose hips?

Pregnant woman?

Cotton!  This is why they call it the cottonwood trail!  Fluffy white fluff everywhere in some places.

Look what we came across!  Oh, deer!

Obviously very used to people.

Sometimes it was questionable if Mika even realized the deer was there.  A hunter she is not.

Deer with the moon in the upper right.  When she went to leave Chris started playing deer noises on his iphone - yeah, there is an app for that.  I eventually told him to cut it out - didn't think it was very fair to the deer.  She is going to have such confusion as to what male deer look like.....

Pretty butterfly stopped to say hello.

One of those "dandelion on drugs" looking plants.

Mika getting in some final creek time before we wrapped up.

A toad - or as Little Lady calls them: "Frog Man"!  She calls frogs "Frog Man" for some reason.  Neither of us know why.

So the hike was great.  Perfect scenery, perfect shade, perfect length, perfect inclines.  Really enjoyable!  It is a great family hike and looked like a nice place for beginner dirt biking.  Chris has been getting back on his bike since we moved out here - so far just hanging out on the Oregon Trail by the house.  It will be a while before I'm on a bike again - but I'd be willing to give this trail a try!