Winter Hike

We had a sixty degree winter day the other week so we headed with some homeschooling friends to the first part of the Signal Knob trail at the George Washington National Forest. The intention was only to go as far as a spring at the end of the first part of the trail.

When we stopped to fill our bottles my friend and I noticed that there was a beautiful rock formation we had never seen before ascending before us to a large outcropping . The children all decided quite suddenly to scale it, scrambling up rocks off the trail to the top of a large bluff. Before we knew it they were at the top and we followed in an awkward pursuit, babies on our backs. The view from the top was quite beautiful since the trees, without their vernal dress, could not obstruct the mountain on the other side of the gorge

I never knew these rocks were so close to the trail because I usually hike it during the summer months. It always amazes me how the seasons reveal a place so familiar to you, anew. What gave me pause to think, however was that, while my friend and I commented on how we had never noticed this formation before, we were content to simply take it in with our eyes.

It is children who are always willing to turn their gaze to some new thing, and then, to pursue it and glory so fully in the very gift of it. It was because of them them that we experienced the beauty of that place so fully. Unforntunately I left my camera in the car but here are some photos with the winter hikers.