My goal this trip was to do hikes that I thought would be fun for our kids.
First up was the Pedestal Rocks Trail.
It does have fun rock formations and beautiful views but it ended up being too long of a hike there and back before you got to those things.
At around 2.5 miles it was not bad at all but several of my kids got bored with the hike.
Stick bugs everywhere.
There are several places to go down and see the rocks closer up.
Beautiful views.
This would be an amazing sunrise or sunset hike.
We planned to drive the scenic byway 7 after this up to Lost Valley Trail.
It is an amazing trail that I thought the kids would enjoy but when we got there it was crazy crowded and no pets were allowed on the hike so we decided to not go.
The kids and Nick went into the Elk Educational Center while we were in Ponca.
Boxley Valley is nearby and is a great place to look for Elk but you have a better chance of seeing them in the morning or evening and we were there mid day.
We always have something not work our quite as planned so I just tried to look at this as the fail for the trip and move on.
The next day we went to Alum Cove Natural Bridge.
This ended up being a fast payoff and the kids had a lot of fun.
The bridge is on a mile loop that has caves and lots of up and down so the kids were happier with this hike.
If I had it to do again I would have tried to do the scenic drive near sunrise or sunset and would have definitely done the 1st hike near then.
I think the kids enjoyed our campground the most though!
It was just such a fun place to explore they would have been happy doing that most of the day!
We headed up North again but not as far.
I was pretty much done with steps after that.
We stopped at rest area on our way back south and ended up at a great beach to look for rocks.
The kids went crazy looking for rocks and we ended up picking up a book on agates to learn more.
Only our oldest had really shown an interest in rocks before that so I thought he would be the only one really excited but all the kids liked it.
We also ended up stopping at Beaver Bay Agate Shop and I highly recommend it if you have a rock collector and are in the area.
It is right near the border and we had gone several years ago.
I have been reading several historical novels about fur trading around the time of the French and Indian War and early fur trading in America so I found all of these stops fascinating.
Next we crossed into Canada and went to 
He even had the boys act the part!
The 
We did not really have any other plans other than make it back over the border and hopefully stop at High Falls on Pigeon River which is at 
It ended up being totally worth it though!