Whew. We are back from a mile and a half round trip to Coronado Cave. I have been wanting to get the family out hiking, but we have had activities going on so far this spring that left little time for anything else. Finally, we made it out to our first hike. The hike up to the cave was pretty rough in places and I was concerned about taking Annie and Zoe. They surprised me! Annie had me on pins and needles the whole time BECAUSE of her confidence. Nothing was too big, no rock to hard to climb over, no steep winding trail too scary. She would have made the trek in half the time had she not had to wait for me! Nick led the way on our trip and did a great job warning us of upcoming hazards. He was followed closely by Delaney and then Zoe. Zoe seemed to think it was a run up the trail. That girl has two speeds, fast and asleep. I tried to keep Annie close to me. Rick and Emi brought up the rear and made sure no one was left behind. At one point we passed a couple and their ten year old daughter who told us they were turning back because it was too tough for them. We weren't swayed from our resolve and made it to the mouth of the cave. Then, the real fun began as we started the 25 feet descent into the cave. It was challenging to manuever rocks and ledges that dropped further than Annie was tall. Not to worry, though, she didn't mind. We lowered her to the next level each time and she kept right on going. Here is a link to the National Park Service website with more information about the cave. Coronado Cave
Here I am taking a break as we make our way up the mountain.
Nick is King of the World!!
Here we are inside the cave. The flash on the camera illuminates the cave, but we were completely in the dark using our flashlights to see the next step we took.
My little spelunker.
You can see the mouth of the cave where we are heading to leave the cave.
Here we are on our way back down the trail. The kids wanted to bring back every rock they found. If you look closely, that was a lot. We did limit it to one each.
