Things We'll Miss About DC, Part II--Great Falls National Park

Especially the Billy Goat Trails. How nice it is to live in a city, but have a National Park only a few miles away. We've been hiking at Great Falls numerous times--in unbelievably hot weather, and when there was snow on the ground, on the Virginia side and the Maryland side of the Potomac River, down the canal path to our favorites Billy Goat A, B and C. Although they are rather crowded, it is a nice break from city life to be surrounded by trees with no pavement in sight. Hear the birds and frogs and smell the whiffy plants. Pav finds rocks, Scott gets to use his gear from REI and I overindulge in photo-documentation. Here is the requisite sunset, self-held family shot with half of Scott and I and all of Pav's nose hair:

On what will probably be our last hike at Great Falls we did something a little different, which--wouldn't you know it--worked out very well. We took an evening hike, mostly because Scott and I were too slow and lazy to go in the morning and Pav was too tired and cranky to go in the afternoon. By the time she woke up from her nap there were only a few hours of daylight left, but have no fear--Scott's gear fetish came to the rescue--we took along our headlamps! The late hour meant no crowds, in fact very few people at all. Usually the weekends at Great Falls are hectic in good weather and fairly crowded even in bad. This is hard on us (me) because we (I) like to walk fast and there are times that we are (I am) forced to exercise our (my) patience while winding through the crowds of pleasure strollers.

Sadly, Pav has long outgrown her backpack but the carrier I sewed for her when she was an infant still works for piggyback rides:
It is too confining for her most of the time so she squirms and complains and asks to get down almost right away. Lesson learned: wait until the child is very, very tired and she will snuggle right in, happy to sit and peak over your shoulder.

Another bonus to hiking in the evening was the wildlife. We saw two beavers and too many turtles and fish to count (although the one Japanese koi did stand out!). After dark the frogs and toads and deer came out so as we walked through the dark we never felt lonely:
Just one of the many places we miss once we're gone.