For my birthda\y, Bill and Renee gave me a book of nature walks in our state. For months, I had been planning that we would spend one day of Spring Break hiking someplace new, so this book was the perfect companion to that plan. I chose this particular walk because it had several different parts - scenic vistas, rivers/ ponds, and unusual features- glacial erratics. these are rocks that were moved during the ice ages tens of thousands of years ago. They are not native to this area.
It was a little more than a two hour drive to get to Pyramid Mountain. We stopped part way for a snack and then pulled out our lunches as soon as we arrived. Once we had eaten and checked out the Visitor's Center (most interesting info - black bears were emerging, best news - we saw no signs of bears), we were ready to hike.
Here we started on the blue trail.
The first part of the trail was pretty flat and winding.
In the distance, beyond the other people walking, you can see the first bridge we crossed, although the lack of rain has led to a very minimal creek under it.
Views from the bridge.
The path led across these rocks (you can see the blue marker on a rock). We thought this was difficult in the beginning; we had no idea what more was to come!
The path took us below these power lines.
The weather was alternately sunny, rainy, and we even had sleet come down for a while, but none of them lasted too long or were too uncomfortable.
I carried my guidebook and some printouts about the hike so we could plan as we went along which paths to take.
There were lots of big rocks like this with trees around, inside and through them.
As our trail went higher, the views became more and more amazing.
As you can see, the trail got steeper and rockier.
A view from the top.
Taking a break on a rock, using his sweatshirt for a pillow.
Group shot.
If you enlarge this picture and look just to the left of Paul's hand, you can see the buildings of lower Manhattan, then just to the left of that, behind the bush is Downtown Manhattan. The next two pictures show the skyline also.
It seemed like we would go up and have some great views, then we'd go downhill. Then we'd start up again. I'd love to find a topographical map to see exactly how much our elevation changed.
Taking a rest.
Our first big landmark was Tripod Rock. As you can see, this big boulder is essentially balanced on top of three smaller boudlers.
There were also a few smaller versions.
After Tripod Rock, we had two choices. We could start to circle back toward the Visitor's Center, or we could go out farther and take a trail that was a little more difficult. At this point, if we headed back, it would have been a pretty short hike, especially in light of how far we drove, so we decided to go farther. This is the area where we saw some sleet, and got rained on a few times.
The rocks in the ground were either plain grey or a dark purple that usually had white markings in it, like this one.
We turned off the blue trail onto the red stripe trail.
We were looking for Whale Head Rock, which I thought this might be, but it was too soon on the trail.
A look back at the trail we had been on.
After walking up this trail, we took another break and had a snack. Rudy was getting a little tired, so we had to decide if it was worth it to go on. After his snack, though, he was raring to go: running ahead of us and calling us 'slow pokes'. We had to keep him insight and also on the path; there were a few times he just kept going straight, not following the trail lines.
We had to do a little more rock climbing to get up this mountain.
An attempt at a picture of my hubby and me- not the greatest.
Rudy still running ahead. We had to rein him in because we were about to come to the most difficult part of the trail- a steep, rocky climb DOWN.
It's hard to see in this picture, but this climb was very steep. As Paul snapped the picture, I slid and went down briefly - great timing!
A look back at the way we just climbed down.
The trail took us through more rocks, but on flatter ground.
This picture could have been very different: We saw this tree that looked like a swing and pointed it out to Rudy. As he excitedly ran over to it, he tripped and fell, his head was probably a few inches away from the tree. This is the moment when Paul and I realized what we really need to bring hiking with us is a first aid kit.
The boy slowing down.
An almost dry creek bed.
The last big stop was Bear Rock - believed to be the largest glacial erratic in the state.
A decent picture considering a second before, Rudy backed in too close to the rock and scraped his back.
Reflections in the water.
The ever-changing sky.
After Bear Rock, we were heading back to the Visitor's Center. This path took us under all the electric towers.
See the long path ahead?
Several bridges/ boardwalks were very tempting and Rudy really wanted to just walk through the mud underneath, but we had made it this far without him getting wet or muddy, so we were determined to keep it that way.
A look back at the way we came.
According to a sign in the Visitor's Center, we walked 4.2 miles. The average time for this walk is 3 hours, and we did it in 3 1/2. Not bad with a six-year-old! We really enjoyed this walk and can't wait to try out more from the book.
