Pinnacles

We said goodbye to my parents that morning as they made their way home, but since we were near Columbia we decided to keep exploring.  We went on a hike that really wowed us.  It was quite the climbing challenge especially when you consider we had two toddlers with us and I am pregnant.  But Pace was a champ and hiked it all on his own.  He was amazing, and that was one of the best parts of the hike.  He loves hiking almost as much as we do!  You don't know how happy I am about this :)  Beyond that I can say that this was probably in my top 3 hikes in Missouri.  It has the adventure of hiking in the Rockies, but the beauty that is all Missouri.  Surprisingly this hike is on a private youth camp, but they let the public use it.  We made sure to leave a little donation for their generosity.  It is called Pinnacles Youth Park, and the trail is Pinnacles trail.

We hiked out the normal trail where at one point you could normally wade across a shallow stream, but because of recent rain this was impossible.  So we visited an alcove shelter bluff, then turned around and backtracked back to the road.

Shelter Bluff

Admiring the Horsetails

From there we found a road bridge across the "stream" (almost large river, because of the rain).  We hiked up a crazy hill.  They had named it some scary name, which escapes me now.  It was pretty steep and deserved the name.  But Pace hiked the whole way up.

View from across the stream

climbing the hill, it is much steeper than it looks

rock climbing

Close to the top

Cool narrow ridge we crossed

At the top we were rewarded with views, pinacles, arches, and other rock formations.  It was spectacular!

Love Grant's face as he takes in the cliff views

In the arch

In another arch

Me up on top of a little arch