Daytrippin'

Don't you just love daytrips? You get away from the house for the day. They don't involve a lot of planning or packing (which I hate!). They are usually inexpensive. And the kids think it's a big deal! Yep, love daytrips.
This past Saturday, my brother, his girlfriend and I loaded up my niece and my 2 boys and headed west to Elephant Rocks and Johnson Shut-ins. So much fun! Elephant Rocks was very cool...I hadn't been there in many, many years and no, the rocks havn't changed :-)
Here's Nick and Beckah when we first got there - what the heck is up with Nick's pose? He does this now whenever I point the camera at him... weird.

Here's Chris...I have no idea what the heck he was doing...rock surfing?

Of course, the cheesy..."Look, Mom! I'm holding up this 500 ton rock with one hand!" photo. Gotta love these :-) Doesn't that rock look like the head of a turtle?

For some reason I found this interesting. Keith obviously loves Valerie very much to stand in the middle of a state park and carve this into a post...fine for vandelism be damned!

This is a very cool old building that is not finished or maybe it is, I don't know. I just thought it was neat looking. The sign said it was and engine house where they used to repair train engines back in the late 1800's when there was still an active quarry here.

Look, more big pink rocks :-)

And another one of those cheesy shots...except this rock looks like an elephant's butt...hehehehe!

It really is very pretty up here, and the weather was just warm enough that we were all ready to head for Johnson Shut-ins after lunch!

There were names carved in the rocks everywhere - apparently from the quarry workers many, many years ago. I was fascinated by them - they made wonder about who these men were, how they ened up in a granite quarry in the middle of absolutely no where, what there stories were...interesting...

More big pink rocks...

Here's the old quarry...just gorgeous standing up here looking down...the sign said the water here is over 40 feet deep...cool, eh?

We went Johnspn Shut-ins after we left Elephant Rock, and because of the impending thunderstorm and the abundance of water at the shut-ins, I did not get my camera our while we were there. But it was a good time, loved the water and climbing the rocks. So much fun - I recommend taking the drive sometime this summer, totally worth it.

And speaking of thunderstorms...

Here's the one we followed home...

Thankfully, we stayed far enough behind this that we didn't have to drive in it. Scary cool, huh?

More later...