Staircase Rapids — Saturday, Apr. 27, 2002

Olympic Peninsula > Hood Canal

I've been trying to get one of my friends out hiking with me and it finally happened. I invited him and his 7 year old and 3 year old to join myself, another friend and her 7 year old. I chose the staircase rapids area because the trail is easy, flat and very pretty. I gave the kids disposable cameras and memory books to capture their time on the hike. We had a visual scavenger hunt which included identifying the plants and animal scat (if any). I think the girls got into it. The hike itself was beautiful and lush. All along the hike you can either see and/or hear the river that parallels the trail. At one point, we were next to beautiful rapids, but the children were in blissful delight over the ""waterfall"" in the water drainage along the trail. Go figure :-) The 3 year old did great on his first hike...he walked almost the entire 2 miles roundtrip except for when he tripped and needed daddy to comfort him with a ""carry."" We had our lunch break at the bridge and the 7 year olds colored and wrote in their memory books. The wind started to pick up and to get the kids moving we jokingly said a storm was a brewing...let's get a move on. The 3 year old took over and kept us moving by shouting, ""the storm is coming, the storm is coming."" ""The storm"" never arrived and it was a beautiful sunny day the entire day. The only animal scat we identified was the 3 year olds poop that we measured and took out of the forest with us for futher experimentation (to see if the public sewer system works). It was great to have the two 7 year old girls with us to entertain each other, especially on the ride back home. We adults were worn-out. I highly recommend this hike for little children. I am glad we didn't go during the height of the summer season...it can get crowded.