My favorite part of Austin is that we get visitors. My cousin messaged us saying that her family was doing a multi-day camping trip and was going to be near Austin for a day. We jumped at the chance to meet up. I think we’d been warned ahead of time, but somehow my impression was that we were going on a short hike and then rock climbing with some of their friends. I should have known better. Her dad has a reputation for picking character building adventures.

We started off going through this slot canyon which was really cool because it isn’t on the park’s maps and is tricky to find. So you basically have to go with someone who has been before. Come visit us and we’ll take you now that we know where it is :). The rest of the park was really crowded, but we had the slot canyon all to ourselves. Which was good because between the three families we had about 15 kids to get up through those rocks.

The slot canyon probably wouldn’t have been tough, except that the little ones couldn’t reach some of the hand/footholds, and our backpacks were wayyy too bulky. Some of the children and I ended up creating an assembly line where we’d pass up all the backpacks, then help each other climb a little further, and pass up all the backpacks again. Meanwhile, Spencer and the parents were doing the same thing with the baby who was impressively happy and chill about the whole experience.

We made it! Check out that view.

Next up: the cave. Which was (obviously) pitch black and we left the camera outside, so I don’t have any pictures. In the middle of the cave, the baby finally decided he’d had enough of being passed back and forth in a cold, wet place. I think we were all a little relieved to see daylight. I was definitely grateful that the Benson’s shared their headlamps with us and that one of the other families knew and led the way.

We finished off the day in the shade.

On the way home I made Spencer pull over, so we could check out the wild flowers. Remember all the blue bonnets back in March? They were replaced by red and yellow flowers until the grass looked like it was on fire. Spring, please hurry back.