Crab Eyes

We watched the sunrise from our planned spot and then headed out to get gas at Medicine Park and saw the gate to Mt Scott was open!  So we went up.

We went to Sonic for breakfast and then filled up the van.
On the way back, we cruised through the downtown part of Medicine Park

These turkeys went a little nuts trying to decide how to get off the road because of the bridge railing.  The boys hummed the Jurassic Park theme while the turkey ran back and forth making sounds like squeak toys.

The trail to Crab Eyes is very easy to follow!
It is at the Sunset trailhead parking, go past the bathrooms and cross the lower bridge.
Enter Charons Garden from the north end and walk 10 minutes to the marked trail split and take the backcountry/Crab Eyes trail.

Trail

trail

SO EASY TO SEE!
that tree to the left had really good cell coverage, we stopped coming and going.

Crab Eyes in the far distance

And zoomed in.

And I was on this trip

The boys morphed into speed demons and flat left me behind.
I got to a vantage point and heard Alex yelling from the top.

trail

trail

trail

As close as I got

There they are!

Alex demonstrates why I was not interested in climbing all the way up.
To get there, you have to shimmy up this crack that Ben got stuck in.  There's just no way I would have fit!

Ugh, I had to look away.

Okay, bush in lower right corner.
Look up the crack that touches it.  Alex is in a hole taking a photo of me.

The views were amazing, all week.

Charons Garden S to N

We drove to the Holy City and saw this bison by a boat and later, Jesus by a Jeep.
Then we went to the Visitor Center and got some directions for a few hikes.

The first was Charons Garden from the south entrance.
The whole trail is just over 2 miles one way.

We took the side trail to Post Oak Falls, a 40-foot waterfall tucked in a crevasse. 

The trail goes right up this little lip.  Trails out there are often just a suggestion or else there's a long, long section of rock and some wandering is required to find the path.  There are animal trails that cross the hiking trails, community trails to a view that dead end surprisingly at a cliff, there are trails that follow the creekbed and since it rained hard Sunday, were disguised as actual creeks.
A GPS waypoint or a compass would not be a bad idea.

This was our goal for this hike, the rock rooms.
The boys climbed and played around for at least an hour.

These rocks are called the Apple and the Pear

We checked out some sunrise options since Mt Scott was likely to be locked and decided on the overlook above Lake Jed Johnson.