And more hiking! This time in Hell's Gate

While Oscar and the kids are off hiking Mt. Longonot again with our visitors from NOLA, I'm spending some time puttering around the house, nesting, and catching up on the blog. I figured at over 6 months pregnant sitting out of this hike was perfectly acceptable…

January proved to be quite an adventurous, outdoor month for the family. The weekend after we climbed Longonot, we headed to Hell's Gate. While Longonot is famous for it's views, Hell's Gate is known for it's beautiful vistas, and river gorge that you can walk through in the dry season. Its proximity to Longonot make it a extra special place where you can see steam vents, and even feel hot water heated by geothermal energy below. Big Oscar unfortunately got a taste of this first hand, when he was carrying Livi over a small running stream and stepped into water that was hotter than boiling… the second degree burn he got as a result on his ankle was fortunately towards the end of the hike! While we made it out fine and he was a trooper even through dinner, the infection that set in a few days later involved multiple antibiotics and injections, but fortunately not a trip to the hospital! The med clinic was awesome coming in after hours to keep his wound clean and the infection at bay. He's still in the healing process (4 weeks out from the hike!!) but at least his medications are done and he feels up to hiking again!

When we got to Hell's Gate, we lathered on the sunscreen and the monkeys descended, clearly used to getting handouts…whether stolen or given! This guy kept a very close eye on what Oscar was getting out of our car, and fortunately did not get in the car to try and steal food.

The hike along the river gorge is beautiful with narrow passes, and some rock climbing. We were a motley crew with 2 kids over 5, 3 kids under 3, and 1 pregnant mom. Watching the little ones being passes in their carriers down 20 ft rock cliffs made me glad that our kids could walk on their own…

The green algae grew where the warm water flowed from geothermal vents, hot to the touch!

you can see why this park provided inspiration for The Lion King

In the Devil's bedroom - yes that's mud in Livi's hands, she plastered it on lots of the rock walls

a good picture would've been of the mom's faces as their 2 yr olds were being passed down the cliffs…

First aid after Oscar's burn. These guys were all prepared with first aid kits!

they are not on the edge of the cliff….there's another level just below them before the drop off :)

Lots of herbivores dotted the landscape.