Morgan Territory Hike

This weekend we hiked Morgan Territory, which is only twenty-five minutes east from the house. It was breathtaking and really diverse. There were creek beds, pastures, desert-esque terrain and the most gorgeous view of the Sierra's. We could see the snow capped Sierra's miles away...amazing!

The pictures (especially re-sized for blogland)
do not do the beauty of this park justice.

Thomas is a great hiker, he usually pulls his own wait, but the occasional shoulder ride does happen. And yes, Tommy is wearing large green socks.

This was taken in one of the creek beds when we started.
Beautiful light + beautiful kid = great picture

Thomas hitching a ride up the pasture. At the top of this peak is where you could see the Sierra's. Mt. Diablo, the highest peak in the Bay Area, was straight north of us.

Our snack break, plop down on a rock.

I love him.

Top of the peak looking out across the flat lands towards the Sierra's.

Picture does not do it justice!

At the beginning of our hike.
Obviously these photos are in no particular order.

Cool nature stuff #1: Cool holes in rocks.

Up close of cool hole in rock.
Weird because there is nothing above them, tree limb, to drip down to erode into a perfect hole. Possibly human made?

This would be Mt. Diablo. Morgan Territory and Mt. Diablo State Park are connected via several hiking trails.

Teaching moment really the entire hike was a teaching moment but this one had a specific subject, a cricket. Thomas has been fascinated recently by the sounds of crickets. When we walk Mable in the afternoon he can hear them best. Once out in the pasture he could hear the crickets but he has never actually seen one. We happened to spot one hopping up the hill. He was pretty ticked when the (scared for his life) cricket refused to make a sound.
"DANCE PUPPET, DANCE!"

Another shot of the Sierra's.

Coolest tree ever!
Can someone please tell me what kind of tree this is?!

It had these amazing grooves and auburn red color.
The oneseler would have left the Lorax's trees alone if he had seen these.

Thomas checking out the cool tree Mommy kept talking about and taking 6000 pictures of.

A view of one of the valleys we had just traversed. We started at 2000 feet and went down to around 1400 feet and back up again to 2000, encompassing about 4.5 miles. Great Hike!