I see elephants!

One of the greatest things that we discovered about Missouri when we moved here is that it's a fabulous place for hiking and rock climbing.  The Ozark mountains which extend up to near St. Louis and where we live have lots of interesting nooks and crannies that we can't wait to explore.  So, on a crisp beautiful fall day, we drove a couple hours southwest to check out a place called Elephant Rocks.

Elephant Rocks is a cluster of huge, ancient boulders surrounded by trails.  There's a fairly easy walking trail that surrounds most of the rocks, or you can just head on up and climb and monkey over the rocks themselves, which is of course what we did.  We brought the Ripster because he loves family hikes so much, but he did have a little trouble skittering over those rocks.  I found myself at times  holding a poodle in one hand and pulling myself up a rock after my boys (both big and little).

It was so much fun.  There were towering rocks that we had trouble reaching the tops of, crevices to hop over, and little tunnels under and between the rocks to squeeze through.  We also followed the trail to a scenic abandoned building that we of course climbed on.  We finished out our time at Elephant Rocks with a picnic lunch perched up on top of some rocks.

We can't wait for more rock climbing and hiking spots to explore!

(a view of the rocks)

(Ian poses as he chases the munchkins.)

(The boys take a rest after some energetic climbing.)

(handsome boys...)

(...times 2!)

(three monkeys climbing)

(This is pretty great mom!)

(Don't look down!)