The Sand Cave 2

The hiking club returned to the Sand Cave yesterday.  It was as awesome as I remembered it the first time.  We went in November of 2013 and we were lucky to have some fall color left.  This time, the leaves were pretty much at peak and the color was outstanding.  Some of the oranges glowed as if they were fluorescent!  We headed out early, about 8:40, and took our time.  We arrived at the Cave in time for lunch.  We always walk to the top rear of the cave for lunch.  Getting to the top of the cave in the deep, extremely fine sand is one of the hardest parts of the hike.  But all five of us made it.  We hiked back down on a different part of the loop, and it turned out that the heavy rain that washed out the road to Hensley Settlement during the summer also did a number on this section of the trail.  It was like walking down a creekbed ditch.  But we were soon on better trail and returned to the trailhead about 3:20.  Another fine day of hiking!

Magnificent color on the way up!

The cave is so large you have to hike up through the sand to the rear of the cave and have a camera with a wide angle lens to capture it.

Note the people at the bottom near the opening.  The size of the cave can be appreciated by comparison.

Laurel Run Park Hike

We had an absolutely stupendous day for hiking today.  It was a bit chilly this AM in the shaded coves of Laurel Run trail, but it warmed nicely and was perfect for hiking.  This hike was a bit different in that there were old homesteads on the trail, which peaked our interest of why and how people lived up that little hollow.  The waterfalls were pretty, but there wasn't much volume on this fall day.  We did however, cross the creeks and navigate the typically muddy areas without much difficulty.  I suppose that is the trade off.