Turkey Creek Hike

Today I bring you a hiking post from back in March. Boy were we itching to get out of the house this spring once the temperature peaked above 40 degrees. We could not get enough. I've written tons about hiking at Three Creeks, but on this particular venture, we hiked at a new area of Three Creeks called Turkey Creek (one of the "Three Creeks"). Soon, I will be reviewing a fantastic new hiking app I found that tracks everything you need to know about a hiking location. I will be using it in the future to add interesting details to hiking posts here on the blog, but for now, you'll just have to take my word for it.

I underestimate spring every single year. I always think it's summer I'm waiting for, but these 60 degree days seem like the perfect remedy for our cabin fever. Even if it's cold and damp, it's still better to be outdoors than not.

I like how big of a difference there is in the vegetation at the different trails we hike. This specific area of the conservation area was not very dense, so we could see right through the forest. I wonder what it looks like now there are leaves on the trees.

It was so beautiful. And those of you who know how much we like primitive trails... we didn't see one single other person here.

So many times while we are camping in Three Creeks, we see signs that people have put quite a bit of time into creating functional camp sites like the one below. I even know people who know people who say they frequently camp at Three Creeks. Funny though, we've never seen tents or signs of actual campers there.

It was a slow descent to the creek bed and a beautiful view when we got there.

Jeremy was showing Lex something on the map. Lex and Eli are actually both really good with directions so I'm sure it will be no time at all before they are leading these excursions.

This (below) was the view for the first full half of the hike. We walked right along the creek with a view of rock cliffs on the other side. It's different than any other hike we've done.

And once again, we came across several amazing places to skip rocks or eventually wade.

I always love it when we see animal prints on trails. We always play what animal is it??? A deer (top left)?... a dog (center)?

Once the trail turned away from the creek for a little while, it opened up like this and created more of a walk in the woods feel than a hike. There was so much space for the boys to run ahead and stay in sight (a hiking rule in our family).

Lots of fallen trees on this trail today.

Back at the rocky creek, the water was really flowing through some of the areas. Look at that view across. Seriously, I would love to climb around up there.

Eli would have stayed and thrown rocks all day if we had let him.

After the walk along the creek, the trails does a u-turn and goes back uphill.

The one cool thing about this trail that is different than other trails in Three Creeks is there are markers along the way (like the one below) that point out different trees and tell the history of them in the area.

O is for Oak Trees.

Love this view of the creek bed.

S is for Sycamore trees which apparently can be found all along the creek.

We found this fallen tree below which offered an invitation to climb and so up we went.

But no sooner than I had climbed about 3 feet, Eli exclaimed, "Don't mom! You're going to break it." I couldn't stop laughing and then decided to get down because if I am strong enough to break a grown tree trunk in half, I certainly don't want to do it while my boys are climbing up it.

Then we found this cool little bench right in the middle of the woods. A perfect place for two worn out boys.

It's so nice when your kids get old enough to take pictures of you. And you get the added bonus of having blurry fingers on the edge.

And also, they keep snapping pictures of you when you don't think they are.

And instead of taking just one picture, they take about 50, so you get to sort through them all and pick the best one.

M is for Maple...

And away we go...

Hope you get an amazing spring hike in soon before it's too hot!