Hiking with Kids is kind of like herding cats. It's easier as they get older, but with the range of ages we had, it was still an adventure. 5 kids, 4 adults. Ages of kids: 6 (two of them), 5, 4, and 3 years old. The thing about hiking is that there is SOOOO much to distract the kids. And, for whatever reason, they are all infatuated with rocks. Yes, rocks. 5 minutes into the hike, all children had handfuls of rocks they were trying to stuff into the pockets of the adults. Well, that didn't fly (hiking with two or four pockets full of rocks? No, thank you.) So, the next thing that got their attention and resulted in major anxiety was looking for coyote tracks. Jade was especially upset about sharing this hike with coyotes (if you've seen Barnyard, you'll know why). With much persuasion, we finally convinced them that if there were coyotes on this trail, we had definitely scared them away by now. Now their attention turns to sticks, next on the list of distractions is lizards, then bugs. Finally, we reach our destination and they get busy looking for arrowheads (much more productive than hunting for coyotes, I might add).
It was a fabulous day. Anasazi Valley is beyond beautiful. It's quiet (minus the 5 kids and the 4 adults trying to keep those 5 kids alive) and full of things to see. We survived, the 2 mile hike took us 5 hours to complete, seriously. But, it was great. We will certainly do it again soon!
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