Our fourth of July hike

On the Fourth of July we hiked on the East Fork Trail in the Jemez Mountains. The hike has two easy miles through a pine forest, and then you go down a steep hill that leads to the East Fork River. We went about four and a half miles.

Calvin hiked for a little while too.  It was a challenge to get him to keep walking forward. He wanted to look at and touch the trees, and walk off into the woods, and he wanted us to sing Fi-Fi-Fo-Fum ad nauseam. But he was having a good time.

Then we hiked with him in the backpack until we got to the river. He wanted to swim, so we took his clothes off and waded into the water. But it was too cold and he wouldn't even let his feet get wet, so we both ended up standing knee deep, holding a naked toddler.

Across the river there were a lot of people walking by in swim suits. I guess they must have parked in a different place, where they could get there faster.  But they said that just down the river there was a huge waterfall where people were going cliff diving. So after we had our snacks and put Calvin's clothes back on we crossed the river.

We came to a spot where we would have to wade through the water, and it was pretty rocky.  It looked like the only way to do it was to get wet.... so we stopped there and sat down on the bank where we threw rocks into the water. Calvin loved doing that, and probably could have stayed there all night, throwing rocks until the bank receded permanently.

Meanwhile people were coming back from the cliffs. One guy hurt his ankle and his friends had to hold him up while he hopped through the river. I guess nobody told him how shallow the water was.

Quinn wanted to check the cliff out and I decided to stay where I was, plopping the rocks into the water (I can't get them to skip). He came back soon and said it looked cool, but he couldn't get to the cliff because you just have to walk through the river. We would have to come back with flip flips.