Four Dances

So there's the Cha Cha, the Fox Trot, the Waltz, and the ... awe who am I kidding.  I don't dance.

Today was stake conference so after church we had plenty of daylight to burn and since Sarah wasn't feeling well, I thought I'd get the kids out of her hair for a few hours.  I dug out the old Kelty kid carrying backpack from the garage, dusted it off and set out with the tree squirrels for a Sunday afternoon adventure.

I'd heard of this place called Four Dances Natural Area named after Chief Four Dances, a religious and tribal leader of the Crow.  The story is that Chief Four Dances went out to fast on top of the rims to the southeast of Billings in the 1830's during the Rocky Mountain fur trade and intertribal plains wars.   A few years back the land was donated to the BLM and turned into a nature area.  We decided to try it out today.

The nature area overlooks Billings and the Yellowstone River at the rims.  This is what we saw from the top.  After hiking to the top, the girls decided they wanted to hike down to the river so they could throw rocks and sticks.  The entire hike they both tried their hardest to gather all kinds of natural materials to throw into the river.  They had no idea how long the hike would be.

Starting the journey to the river (or lake as they kept calling it)

Evie had a blast strapped to my back.  The rest of us had to work.

The trail got a little icy and muddy on the shaded side of the rims.

Our decent.  Rocks...Sarah would've been drooling.

Ooh!  We made it.  Lets throw everything we can get our hands on into the river.

Evie just chillin' and watchin' all the action.

Time to go.  We have to get back to the top of this rock!

The girls were eager to get down to the river but not so anxious to climb back up.  We took a break part way up.  OK, several breaks!  They are tired in this picture.  Sydney, although tired, trucked it up the hill.  Tara, all tuckered out, doddled the whole way stopping to pick grass or throw a stick, anything but walk.

And Evie enjoyed the free ride and rubbed it in Sydney's and Tara's faces.  "Ha Ha Ha!  You're tired and still walking and I just have to sit here and ...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz."  If I recall correctly, all three have napped in the Kelty.