Monkey Face

Our weekend discussions go something like this.

Do you want to go skiing today? Or snowshoeing? We could go snowshoeing. Or mountain biking! How about mountain biking? Ah, but we haven't visited [insert about 100 interesting places here] yet. Or we could go for a trail run...

We are so spoiled. So, so spoiled. I feel guilty about living in such a playground, like we should have to work harder for our fun.

Anyway, this weekend, we settled on exploring Smith Rock State Park. Smith Rock is famous for its rock climbing. One of the most notable formations and challenging climbs in the park is Monkey Face (if you click on the photo, you can see climbers near the nose and one headed for the mouth):



We weren't doing any actual climbing ourselves. Instead, we were playing it safe and taking a hike around the park. Before heading out, the monkeys made faces:



Once on the trail, a nice older couple embracing their retired status and the freedom of grown children snapped a photo of us, not once....



...but twice.



Wow! That's rare. You almost never see all of us in a photo at the same time. That's by design. You see, we're more dangerous when separated and more difficult to target when alone. Life as ninjas is lonely, indeed.

So, back to the hike. The start of the trip began with an inspiring view of the Crooked River.



We used this inspiration to attack Misery Ridge Trail, only stopping to refuel on a can of sardines near the summit.



From the top, we got a better view of the climbers. It was especially cool watching them rappel down when done with their climb. (You can see one guy in a red top headed down near the bottom of this photo.) Awesome!



Not to be one-upped, Sarah showed off her skills by balancing on one foot.



The rest of the hike was just gorgeous. The trail near the river reminded me a lot of The Cañón, a beautiful slice of land near my parent's house in New Mexico.



I knew we'd had a good day when during dinner Sarah set her fork down and said, "OK, time for bed."