devil's bathtub hike #2

Despite Noah's insistence after our first Devil's Bathtub hike that we do it yearly, we missed year. On June 10th, when we no longer felt sore from our half marathon five days prior, and it was incredibly hot outside, we desired to cool off and hike at the same time and thus drove up to Spearfish Canyon. 

Ah, much better. Those creek crossings were not nearly as cold as I remembered from last time, but that was in September. This day was 91 degrees.

We remembered this burl, but I still don't know why they form...

Pretty everywhere!

Another creek crossing. Snap needed some prodding on the way up but did better on the way down.

It was nice and cool in the shade.

Selfie proof I was there as well.

Go Snap go!

This wall just before you come to the Bathtub is my favorite part of the hike.

The valley/canyon just opens up and with the water going right by over smooth rocks  it's so beautiful.

I took a lot of pictures. 

But hey, it's my blog and I can do what I want. 35 pictures? No problem.

Two years ago when we did this Ezra was pretty unsteady on his feet and therefore Terry carried him in a backpack. He did very well this time. Of course he needed us to hold his hand through the water but he wasn't afraid at all.

Samuel also did great. He needed help last time but was on his own the entire hike.

Since it was a Friday, we hoped the crowd would be thinner than during the weekend. Perhaps it was but it was still very busy when we reached the Bathtub.

One more rock to climb down.

Finally reaching the actual Devil's Bathtub.

Last time Noah had to be convinced he'd be okay to go down the waterfall but not so this day. He dropped his backpack, took off his shirt, and went for it without a backwards glance.

This was my very first time going down! It felt colder, but still refreshing, to have my upper half submerged. 

Noah slide a second time and then Terry went down the waterfall that flows out of the Bathtub above.

This was the first one Evie went down that day - she did go down the Bathtub waterfall with Daddy though.

And Noah too. Samuel and Ezra didn't do any sliding.

Then it was time to jump into the lower pool.

Some older boys were jumping from the higher cliffs but my kids were good with just this one.

Terry jumped from the cliff though. I'd like to someday, but not with a huge audience.

Looking back up to the Bathtub. With my clever camera skills I could cut people out of the frame, but some had definitely left after we arrived.

I had never noticed this sign before.

There were a couple high school looking girls hogging the waterfall forever, taking selfies, posing, throwing their hair around. Ew. Finally we had a chance to have Noah take our picture real quick.

Evie and Samuel hung out on the side of the lower pool watching the big boys jump and helping them to clear the bottom of the pool of rocks.

I asked a woman to take our picture. A crowd came through from above at that exact moment and I had to crop out a lot of the frame. 

Still not bad.

Even more cropping so not as clear, but there we are.

I would've liked to linger more on our way back down but we were tired and hungry. It's even more beautiful on the way down.

We were walking along with several other families.

I hung back a couple times to get a fuller shot of the cliffs.

This is one of my favorites shots. Once we reached the van we drove to Cheyenne Crossing where we all had nearly the best hamburgers ever, and then moseyed on home through Deadwood, remembering our race. We stopped at Robaix Lake, where Terry's family camped and fished a lot and we would like to as well, past the old Boondock's, and finally home. Good day.