A Night at Sand Creek

One week after annual outings with Willow and Ellory, respectively, it was now time for Raylee.  For this trip we returned to Torrey where we dropped off my son Lennox to have a night with my in-laws while I took Raylee for a night of camping up nearby Sand Creek.

- Day 1 -
Tuesday - June 12, 2018

After arriving at our campsite and setting up, we drove a little further up the road to a trailhead to begin a hike in search of an elusive waterfall up the creek.  This was a waterfall I had tried twice before to find and failed each time.

The first attempt had been a few years prior.  Together with my wife and her father, we had hiked far enough up the trail to find it, but we had inadvertently passed a point where you have to go off trail and do a bit of scrambling.  When we realized we were too far, weather and time sent us back to our car.

The second attempt was earlier in the spring with the family, but the little legs of our three-year-old would not have any of it.

So now it was on with the third attempt.

As they say...Third time is the charm! We found it!

It had been quite a scramble to get down to and then back up from the falls, so it turned out to be a very good thing that the attempt with the whole family fell well short in the month or two before.  The day was running to a close now, so we hastily made our way back down the trail and back to camp with what daylight was left.

Soon enough, we were back in camp, eating, relaxing, and playing.

Tuckered out, Raylee retired to bed while I stayed out a bit longer to see what other kinds of night shots I could capture.

- Day 2 -
Wednesday - June 13, 2018

After a restful and peaceful night, the sun returned.

We took some time to play around and explore our camp, in addition to looking for any litter to pick up around the area.

Raylee spotted this lifeless shiny beetle.  She was very impressed with its colors.

We moved on and explored a bit more up into a little hideaway.

We soon returned to camp where we finished packing up and headed back down into town where Raylee would be swapped out for Lennox, setting up his turn for a day of adventure and camping.