Hubley Happenings

Hubley Happenings
Angel Fire Summer 2014

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Dinosaur Valley Day Trip

On the Saturday before Mother’s Day, we took the kids and Broady down to Dinosaur Valley State Park in Glen Rose for a day trip.  We left the house around 8:30 and got back home that evening around 6:30. It was a long day but we had a great time.  The weather was beautiful, mid 80’s with a breeze. 

The first thing we did when we got there was take a hike up to a scenic overlook at the top of the park.  I think it ended up being a little more than 1.5 miles.  Hannah hiked the whole thing and Nathan alternated between hiking and riding in the backpack.  Here are some pictures of our hike

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Great view down to the Paluxy River with a few fishermen

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Hannah likes to be the line leader

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We took a break at the top and had some snacks

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Broady had a great time.  We debated over bringing him but were glad we did in the end.

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After we got back down to the river, we decided our hikers were pooped and we needed to head back to the car. We could either finish the loop, backtrack to the trailhead, or take a shortcut across the river.  We opted to cross the river.

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Here are the girls climbing out of the river

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We ended up getting kind of wet and muddy and had to change shoes.

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Next we went to eat lunch in the picnic area and the kids played on the playground.  Nathan took a little rest in my lap after lunch, but not long.

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After lunch we went to the swimming hole on the river and swam for about 1.5 hours. We didn’t take our camera down there so we don’t have any pictures to show. This was a great swimming hole with cold and clear water that ranged from 6-13 ft deep.  I jumped in the swimming hole first to test it out and then helped the family cross the shallow part to a gravel beach on the other side.  Nathan threw rocks and Hannah played in the water.  Jennifer sunned on the beach.  Broady wouldn’t cross the river again, so I started to carry him across and of course I fell half way across and everyone was watching so they got a good show.  When we got there, I was the only one swimming but by the time we left, several other large groups had come and there were 20+ people swimming.  It was a lot of fun.

After swimming, we cleaned up and put on dry clothes and stopped to see the dinosaur statues.  This was really the main draw for Nathan.

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Then the kids played in the wildflowers for a little bit.

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By this point, it was probably 3pm and we were wiped out. We loaded up and headed home.  The kids were asleep in their car seats before we were out of the park.  As we were passing through Granbury, we went by the square and decided to stop for some shopping.  I parked the car in the shade with the windows down and let Jennifer do some shopping. When the kids woke up, we had an early dinner at Babe’s Chicken Dinner.  We finished up with some vanilla ice cream.

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What a great day! Nathan is already asking to go back as I type this.

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