Lost Cliffs and Dry Run hike

The last time we visited this trail was on the second day of our fall camping trip last October.  I just revisited that post and I said this, at the time:

Our guide book suggests continuing down the fire road to a small cascade at Dry Run, but we decided to save that for another day.  We needed to head home, it was approaching lunch time, and the description of the cascade indicated it wouldn't be particularly impressive this time of year anyway (the stream is called Dry Run, afterall).  I'm sure we'll be back to explore this one again!


Well, we did come back to explore this one again and we did continue farther down the trail to dry run!  The trail felt wide open with no leaves on the trees.  The hike down the fire road to the Lost Cliffs was easy and Sierra managed the steep scramble to the top with only a little guidance.

The views from the top of cliffs were stunning, and seemed even more expansive with no leaves on the trees.  

Sierra is a budding naturalist and enjoyed looking at all the little things on the hike.  Here, she's touching a nice, squishy patch of moss.  Which my mossy friend (what?  You don't have a mossy friend?  Your loss.) indicated is leucobryum or something.  (of course I was paying attention, I just can't spell in Moss.)

Once we scrambled down from the cliffs, Kaia decided she wanted to do a little hiking herself.  Big sister was happy to help.  

Hiking with small persons is interesting.  It involves lots of rest stops and snack breaks.  

A couple wet, squishy spots on the trail required some "parental assistance" for the girls to get across.  

I love how our tiny hiker looks in her vest and hiking pants!

We finally made it to the little cascade, which was lush, and green, and lovely.  The fire trail continues on to I-don't-know-where, so there's potential for an even longer and fairly easy hike, but we turned around at that point.  

Our previous hike in Shenandoah, Sierra hiked nearly 3 miles all on her own, this time, though, she made it barely a mile and then required some Daddy assistance.  The hike this time began in the afternoon after a morning of preschool, so I think that was the difference.  I can't believe we are still "babywearing" an almost 4-year-old, but thank goodness for babywearing!  We couldn't do these hikes without it!