Wildlife Refuge

The troops were getting restless around here. All work and no play was making this bunch of girls a little on the cranky side. I decided that we were going to do something different today. Anything! As plans settled into place for the day I decided a trip to the wildlife refuge was the thing to do.

The first thing we planned to do was hike the Sheepy Ridge Wildlife Trail. We didn't see much wildlife, or maybe it's that we scare away everything before we even get to see it. Here's Hannah at the trail head. This is the first trail she has ever completed without being pushed or packed. It was short but quite steep.


Proof that there was a Mama pack mule carrying Helena, water and snacks.

The arrow shows the stone "lookout" that is the trail's end. Its construction was completed in 1938 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as a place to observe the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

Here's another view.
We made it!

Here's the view from the lookout. The small wetland area in the foreground is the Discovery Marsh where we walked before heading home. The water in the background is Tule Lake.

Hannah wasn't much for spending time in the lookout. We were there for about two minutes and she was ready to come back down. We took a look through the visitor's center and then walked around Discovery Marsh. It seemed like there weren't very many different kinds of birds there today. I think we will have to make it back again soon. Hannah said she really liked it. So far she has colored in a new wildlife coloring book, drawn a picture of us looking at a Bald Eagle, and taken our new bird identification book with her during her quiet time.

This was a nice place to go that was close to home but Hannah still felt like we went somewhere. Every night she asks me if I'm planning to go town tomorrow. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with her. She wants to go town everyday and I would be perfectly fine without going for months!