bucking mule falls

the whole original plan was to go camping saturday night and spending the day on the mountain on sunday. only half of that occurred.

the hubby was feeling all pukey so no camping happened. buzz kill!

but we woke up sunday morning feeling much better and escaped to the mountains because I was not digging the idea of 100*.

we only had one place in mind. bucking mule falls.

neither of us had ever been.

getting to the parking area was the easy part.

we were off….on what we thought was the trail. it was an old forest road. I thought I knew where we were headed. don’t worry mom, we had the gps.

the one and only snow pile on the trail. the puppies had a ball playing in it. if it wasn’t for the fact that we were getting eaten alive by wolves we might have stood there all day watching them pounce and play around.

not a cloud in the sky. just a bunch of smoke. if you didn’t know any better you could have sworn our forest was on fire.

we knew we were getting close when we could hear the falls.

so far down there. the whole time hiking in I was thinking we were going to end up at the base of the falls. little do I know….

literally straight down!

so worth the hike though.

the smoke obviously just set into the  valley.

we made sure the kids stayed away from the edge….even though there were a couple times they gave us heart attacks.

we made it happily. and now I know….you don’t end up at the base of the falls, and the “trail” we were on really wasn’t the trail.

I ended up with some pretty sweet backpack sun burn lines.

it was 100+ in sheridan yesterday…and 80+ on the mountain…still so hot.

the puppies found shade when they could…and wasted no time heading back.

yup. this is how yesterday went. I was just happy to be on the mountain!

after we made it back to the parking area we found the ACTUAL trailhead with the REAL trail. no wonder the people we ran into at the overlook looked at us funny when we came from the wrong direction. we now know it makes a loop. I liked walking next to the hubby instead of behind him.

after bucking mule…we head to porcupine  falls. which I have been to before and I knew what we were in for. I tried to warn the hubby. I kept saying…”its straight down in and straight up out!” I give props to the trail crew…because they have done an excellent job improving the trail. its still straight down in and straight up out….just not as tricky.

this was a single track trail, and this is going in.

gorgeous! totally worth the quick trek. puppies even took a dip.

and the way back out. hubby said “holy crap. we have to go up?” yes, babe….up.

I measure my success on the day by the dirtiness of my feet in chacos. that’s dirt. I don’t tan very easily. it was a successful day.

we also measure success by how long it takes the dogs to pass out….0.2 seconds.

mission accomplished.