Exploring the area!

We all love to hike and so we had planned for many different beautiful hikes around the lake, but we hadn't quite planned on the time and frustration it took actually finding the trailheads. Lets just say we had many adventures and were able to "enjoy the scenery" from the car for most of the trip. One trailhead ended up being 19 miles out on a rough dirt road...it took us 1 1/2 hours to get to it. We really wish we could have rented a 4 wheel drive vehicle as we had reserved online before landing in Spokane, but our Ford Flex did fairly well.
The scenery was beautiful and we had many views of the bottom of the mountains as we rode along the one lane bumpy dirt roads. Tom wasn't able to enjoy it as much and Shawn and I did.
We all really did enjoy getting out of the car for a little reward hike once we made it to our destinations. I am proud of Tom's determination to find the trailheads and I am happy we made it to get out and breathe the mountain air and hike a bit! Shawn loved every minute of it all!!! He is such a trooper and we are learning how much of an outdoorsman he is proving to be :)

Shawn got so giddy each time we pulled out the backpack to go hiking! He giggled constantly in between babbling to the birds and talking to the dogs of other hikers that we passed by. The trees were gorgeous and their leaves were just starting to change colors.


Of course Shawn did not complain at any chance he had to run around and explore the forest. We literally had to catch him in order to get a picture with him :) We are so pleased he loved the trip!