Mother's Day Hike: Ricketts Glen Falls Trail

Today is Mother's Day! The boys surprised me with cards and hugs and kisses. We had breakfast, and then walked to the Falls Trail trailhead from our cabin. A perk of staying in the cabin is that we are so close to the trail and can walk to the start. 

Here is the map of where we started and the loop we followed. We started at the red star (where it says "You are Here" and followed the trail down to where we hit the first waterfall which was Onodaga. We hit all 21 waterfalls on the trail and looped back via the Highland Trail and then back up to the cabin.

Below is the first waterfall, Onondaga, a 15 foot waterfall. There are parts on the trail where you have to be really careful, this was one of them as the steps were a little slick and as you can see there are no railings. Definitely have to hold the kiddos hands when going down.

It's so neat to hike and see so many waterfalls on one trail. They are each unique in their own way and just really neat to see up close. At some of the falls you are so close you can even feel the mist of the water spray on you. 

The kiddos did great on the hike. Payton was very adventurous as you can see above and had no problems doing the hike. Collin did awesome as well as he wasn't in the backpack the whole time. He enjoyed walking some. The thing with hiking with kids is you can enjoy the scenery more. I remember before kids, we would speed through hikes to get to our destination (usually the top of a mountain) as fast as we could. We would notice things going up but not stop and actually see our surroundings. With kids we can just relax and really enjoy the scenery. We take lots of snack and water breaks too! :)

This is my favorite pic of the whole trip as you can see that the boys are pretty happy. At this moment they were smiling and saying "Happy Mother's Day" to me. I feel lucky that my boys enjoy the outdoors and have fun when we go on hikes like this.

 The boys especially had fun finding and throwing rocks into the water.

Below is a family pic of us by the tallest waterfall on the trail. You can't really tell by the pic but the waterfall is actually 94 feet tall.

Below is us on the Highland Trail at the Midway Crevasse, so here we were on our way back to the cabin.

I don't know what it is, but sometimes on hikes my 4.5 year old just runs ahead of us as fast as he can. He was so fast, I couldn't catch up. He definitely still had lots of energy at this point in the hike.

In all we probably did about 6 miles total. It's an amazing hike. Seeing so many waterfalls on one trail is just incredible! I definitely recommend this hike to others. Just make sure you are careful on the tricky parts with the steps. It can be scary to some and if it is wet, be even more careful. 

We ended the hike with ice cream back at the cabin, then had a bbq and another campfire. Told fun stories and then called it a night. :)