by Harley McAllister There is a travel brochure for Spokane that describes our town as "Near Nature, Near Perfect." And indeed, one of the things we love about living here is that a short drive from our house in most any direction will provide us with places to be outdoors. This Spring we plan to review some of our favorites - all the nearby State Parks, Conservation Areas, Natural Areas, County Parks, etc. that we can go and play in. And the first of these is the Saltese Uplands Conservation Area. Just this past weekend I found myself alone with my youngest son because all the other boys had activities. The weather was nice for February and so the mountains called. I only had a couple hours to get out so I immediately thought of this nearby retreat. This area is roughly 550 acres of rolling hills that overlooks the Saltese flats below to the west, Liberty Lake to the east, with views of Mica Peak and the surrounding mountains above. There are 7 miles of trails that gently rise and fall with the terrain making it a great destination for hikers, dog walkers, hikers, bird watchers, and mountain bikers alike. The pictures will show you what it has to offer, and all of this is located but a 5 minute drive south of the Barker exit of I-90 in the Spokane Valley. Perfect for a quick getaway. One thing to keep in mind when visiting here is that there are no trees on this parcel, so consider that on a hot day. But for that same reason we love to visit on bluebird days in the Winter and Spring so we can soak up the sunshine. The mountain bike trails here are well maintained, and the boys and I patrolled them a number of times last year. And we almost always see a raptor or two out there, and occasionally a whitetail at dawn or dusk. cont'd with map at the bottom... |
So if you live anywhere near the Spokane Valley, you owe it to yourself to check this place out. See the map below.
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Today we blog from our other site about our favorite memories from our trip to Utah. This time Dad shares along with our 12 year old Tavin. I asked them each to write individually and it touched my heart so much to see what memory they each came up with. Check it out at http://www.nationalparkswithkids.com/blog .
We are excited to begin a countdown to our official Utah guide book release. Although it is already available on Amazon and doing well, we have been planning to have a special release event in March. In order to count us down to March 11th we will be posting our favorite Utah national park moments each Friday. We will feature a favorite moment from one parent (Harley or I) and one moment shared by one of our kids. Today we kick off the countdown with our Zion National Park most memorable moments! Surprised by Unexpected BeautyBy Abby McAllister
Feeling Like An Action Movie Star!By Kaden McAllister, age 14 The most memorable part of Zion NP for me has to have been the hike to Hidden Canyon. This particular hike took us along a really steep cliff wall. The trail was carved out of the rock or sometimes followed a narrow ledge. In some places chains had been drilled into the rock wall for you to hold on to, so you wouldn’t fall down the few-hundred-foot drop. I remember looking down and being glad of the chains! It made me feel like I was in a movie or something, hiking along that precipice. At the top of the mountain, the end of the path, there was a ravine with boulders that you could scramble over and around. We spent hours jumping over and crawling under the boulders. I also loved the view from the top. You could see all the way back to the trailhead, and see all of the people, as small as pinheads along the trail. It really let you see how far you had come. Going down was fun too because I didn’t have to work as hard as I had coming up.
By Abby McAllister
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