Family Hike at Placerita Cyn.

My 3rd grader has been learning a lot of history about the city where we live, Santa Clarita.  She has learned about the Indians who lived here and the Oak of the Golden Dream where gold was first discovered and much more.  She even teaches a thing or two to me about our city. She is shocked when I don't know something.  Yes, I should know everything, right?

We went to Placerita Cyn. to do their family hike to reinforce what she had been learning about in school.  The last time we did this hike was last year; but we always walk away learning something new.  Last year, we came after a rain and were able to see tadpoles in the river.  This time, the river was all dried up.  During the hike, the docent talked about different plants, trees and leaves, showed us a replica of an Indian hut and what materials were used to make it.  We learned about the Walker Family and then came to the story of how gold was the first to be discovered here.  The tour lasted about an hour; but we still had some energy to burn.

We decided to go on a little hike.  We set out for the waterfall hike; but found out that is was almost a 5 mile hike one way.  We set our goals a little lower to the shortest hike, which was 2 miles one way to reach the Walker Ranch. 

My youngest found a really nice walking stick for herself and of course my oldest had to find one just as good.  The whole hike was her quest to find a really nice walking stick.  The closest she got was a tall, thin curvy one that just wasn't good enough.  My youngest was nice enough to share her stick on the way back.

Everyone's energy ran out as it was way past lunch time.  I got out voted from trying to reach our destination.  I think we got about 3/4 of the way to the ranch before we turned back. After 4 hours of hiking, everyone was exhausted. 

At least we got in some good exercise!