Inks Lake State Park (4.29-30.13)

At the end of April we squeezed in another quick trip to Inks Lake SP. Unfortunately our usual spots were taken so we were forced to try something new... The boys were fine because there was enough gravel to scoop and transfer.

Cooling off in the shade.

Alan and his mini-me.

There is this big granite rock in the middle of an open space that the boys like to play on.

Later that day we walked up to the playground and then on to the camp store for a cold treat. Then we decided to rent a paddle boat. The boys had never been on a paddle boat before and enjoyed it. At first we were more worried about Adam spontaneous jumping into the lake, so Alan sat up front with Aaron and paddled all by himself. Then, once we determined Adam wasn't [as much of a] hazard, Aaron and I  switched.... (there's also a video clip at the bottom)....

Alan goes fishing in the evening and I always ask for sunset photos. This one was particularly nice...

The next morning we had planned to drive up the road a bit to the trails around the Pecan Flats Trail Camp. We are still breaking Adam into "hiking" so we can't go too far and unless someone wants to give a piggy-back ride, the trail needs to be fairly even and flat. But first... breakfast...

Probably a tractor video or something.

The boys thought this outhouse in the middle of the woods was cool.

We opted to take a drive up Park Road 4 a bit and check out the Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery. It was very interesting. A bustling place with hard working guys buzzing about on Gators and old, clean cut buildings scattered around a sprawling piece of land. Visitors can wander just about anywhere on the grounds. 

They had a scenic trail that led straight up a rocky area to overlook Inks Dam, so even though it wasn't Adam-style hiking, we went for it.

He did okay. Perhaps there was just too much going on to be whiny. However it did require me to hang on to him the entire way.

Aaron was the trail guide. He had to follow the trail markers and tell us where to go. He got very nerdy excited about it.

The view of the dam from the top.

A pretty standard Stacer family photo.

View of the hatchery.

A video of our outing...