Elephant Rocks and Taum Sauk

Day two of our mini-vacation was to visit two other state parks in the area.

First up was Taum Sauk Mountain, the tallest in the state. We took some pictures at the overview, and really saw why it is recommended to visit in the fall. It would be beautiful with all the leaves changing!

Here's the girls at the exact tallest spot in the state, according to the marker.

We were going to hike to a waterfall, until we read the sign that said it was rough terrain, difficult, and could take up to 3 hours. No thank you. We weren't into that today.

Next up was a picnic lunch at a Civil War battlefield site. We went inside and listened to one of the park rangers discuss the battle, complete with a fiber optics lighting show. The girls were intrigued by the lights, but also digested quite a bit of what he was saying about the battle.

After lunch we went to Elephant Rocks State Park. I'd heard about the cool rocks, and it did not disappoint my little (and big) hikers and climbers.

Can you see the trees in this picture? They are forming around the rock and growing flat in that area. Pretty cool.

Pretending to hold up the rock.

Again, pushing the rock up with one finger.

First attempt at a family picture using the self-timer on the camera. Not bad! It was a  beautiful view from up near the top. Again, you can see how cool it would be with the leaves changing.

The girls in front of Dumbo, the largest rock in Elephant Rocks. He weighs 680 tons. Look how small the girls look next to him.

We did a lot of jumping and climbing. My kids love to do this, and I love how outdoorsy they are.

After this, I have no pictures of my family, because they left me at the top and went to the entrance without me. I waited for a while, and then it was evident they'd left me, so I headed for the entrance myself.

We met Bobby's dad and his wife for dinner at the usual place, Pizza Inn, and made the usual visit to Walmart.  It was good to see them!

 And here's a shot I took of the girls in the car on the ride home--entertaining themselves with technology. What did we do before iPods?