Family Vacation Day 4

Today I planned to take my family out to Devil's Punch Bowl. After Daniel woke up from his nap we headed out to Devil's Punch Bowl and got there around 2.30 pm. For those of you who aren't familiar with Devils Punch Bowl, it's similar to Vasquez Rocks... just upside down. First we walked a little around on the rim of Devil's Punch Bowl. A Park Ranger approached us and provided us with a map...it's the same map that I could have printed outfrom the WebSite. Not a very good map though (scale is too large), but a map after all. We chose the so called 'Loop Trail' as it goes down into Devil's Punch Bowl all the way to the creek and then leads back to the parking area. This trail is a little over 1 mile long. Turns out that a 1 mile long trail for and adult and for an 1 1/2-yearold are two entirely different things.

Right at the beginning we took a little detour to some great rock formations where my Sis with Daniel, Bernd and Leonhard did some exploring of those rocks, while I stayed with my mom on the easier trails. After about 40 minutes or so we walked back to the main trail and

followed it down all the way to the creek. Here we took a longer break. Leonhard and Daniel got enough time to play along the creek and in the creek as well. I was surprised that he wasn't bothered by the cold water...as this water was mostly from the snowmelt in the mountains above. Since we had a really cold and long winter this year we still could see some snow on the mountain tops above Devil's Punch Bowl and that made for some incredible scenery. After Leonard and Daniel were done playing in the creek we continued on

our way back up to the parking lot. We took quite a number of stops to enjoy the incredible scenery. By the time we got back to the car, close to 6 pm, the Park Rangers got ready to close down the Visitors Center.

We headed back to our place and I started getting the sides ready for dinner. I had planned on having roasted potatoes with the the BBQ. around 8 pm Bernd and I managed to

start up the BBQ and grilled Burgers, Salmon and Tuna. Additionally I warmed up refried beans. It was a very yummy meal.