Waterfalls vs Culverts, What is More Interesting?

Monday, April 4th – Cheaha State Park, Alabama – Day 55 

 We woke up and I made potato pancakes and eggs as a special breakfast before a big day of hiking. The kids found a culvert that a stream passed through to get under the road and fell in love. They spent the longest time climbing through the culvert, which was 4 feet in diameter, from one side of the road to the other and then climbing over the road and doing it again. It started as our three kids and quickly turned into four then five then six. The kids make friends wherever they go. 

 When we entered the park the night before, the ranger recommended three water falls in the area to visit. We started with Cheaha falls. To get to the waterfall involved a three-quarter mile hike to the falls. We sat at the bottom of the falls on some large rocks and let the sound of the waterfall wash over us as we ate a lunch of tuna wraps. We then walked further down the river, some of us jumping rock to rock along the river. Eventually, we ran out of trail and rocks and turned back to walk back to our car. 

 The next stop was High Falls. The walk was much shorter to the start of the falls, half a kilometre, but there were three falls in succession so it took some effort to get to the top falls. The hike involved walking up hill following the small river and using rocks to move across the river. A wrong turn forced us to crawl up a fairly steep hill which everyone handled well. John was hilarious because he had no interest in the trail, he wanted to walk directly up the river as it trickled down; from rock to rock when he could and directly beside the river up the rocks when necessary. Occasionally he missed the rocks and he ended up soaked. We reached a natural pool at the bottom of the second waterfall and there might have been some skinny dipping. This was risky because when we continued we met some hikers shortly after. 

 Everyone was exhausted and we proceeded back to the campsite for some rest and food. The kids were invited for s’mores at the campfire of their friends from earlier. The adults had a bit of excitement at our camp but before long everyone was in bed for the night.