Gans Creek Hike

Last weekend, we initiated the 2016 hiking season. We had snow on the Wednesday before. Not much, but a ground covering at least. By Saturday and Sunday, most of the snow had melted and the weather slowly creeped into the 40 degree range. Perfect hiking weather! There was just enough snow on the ground to make it interesting, but sunny and bright enough for it to be refreshing to be outdoors.

We hike all the time, which you probably know if you read this blog. We have our favorite spots for sure (Three Creeks, anyone?), but we are constantly scouting out new spots. We first stepped foot on this trail a couple of years ago when we were out for a drive and a dead ended up at this trail head. Excited to have found a new trail, we had to get out and see it. But because we had not intended on hiking that day, we weren't prepared for a long hike. If I remember correctly, I was still wearing dress shoes from school. We went in about 50 yards or so then turned around and made a mental note to return. Two years later, here we are in the dead of winter!

Gans Creek is very close to the Rock Bridge trails which we have hiked many times. They are not our favorite because they are also a tourist attraction and always crowded. We like more primitive trails where there aren't many people, and this one was perfect! We only saw one other person on our way out.

The ground was slushy in spots. And thank goodness for us, we all brought a change of clothes, because we had a concert to go to right after our hike.

I should note here that Eli is wearing a Colts sweatshirt, even though they didn't make it to the playoffs at all. But later on this very day we hiked, the Broncos clenched the AFC Championship, sending Peyton Manning to what will most likely be his last Superbowl. Enough about that.

Eli loves to be the leader, or as he calls it, the "conductor."

Winter hikes are so restful. There were very little signs of life. Some little animal tracks (a squirrel maybe?) and a few birds in the distance were about all we saw. The boys pointed out some acorns and wondered why the squirrels hadn't gathered them up yet.

I love this picture (above) so much that I might blow it up and hang it in my house. The light is just perfect behind the trees.

The boys were so happy to be out of the house for a while. They could have hiked all day if we had not had other plans.

A family selfie.

Trekking ahead.

We weren't out for long since we had somewhere else to be, but we did get in about 45 minutes of good hiking. We got back to our car with about 10 minutes to spare, so we did head down another trail (pictured below) just for a while and determined that we would be back to finish that trail another day.

Happy hiking!

Trail Map