Cedar Lake, Ouachita National Forest ~ Day 1

We just got back from a birthday trip to the Ouachita National Forest!

hotchocolate

We stayed at the Cedar Lake Recreation Area in the Ouachita National Forest for six nights!

Three nights in a really nice wooded campsite with no electricity and three in an electric spot since it was going to get cold and we had a space heater.

oatmeal

Oatmeal.

cook

Nick’s little stove is so nice for cooking on!

lake

We started off our first morning there with an easy hike around Cedar Lake.

It was 3.9miles all the way around after taking a spur.

cedarlaketrail

We saw some blood from a wounded animal on the trail.

The boys of course were set on tracking it.

cedarlake

This is a beautiful lake.

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us

growth

trees

dock

boys

This was a great easy hike to start off our time there.

I had decided we should do two hikes that day.

Of course my second choice was not as easy…

horsethief

The Horsethief Springs Trail is around 11miles and definitely fit it’s “more difficult” rank.

woods

The terrain varied.

Sometimes it was not too bad and sometimes I think it was trying to kill me.

firegrass

climb

It was also overgrown in parts and not always the easiest to follow.

sign

Mostly we ran into fading light more than anything.

It gets dark so early that this should have been our first hike of the day.

beautyberries

American Beauty Berry were everywhere!

silly

We made it back before dark (barely)!

The next day I decided to take it easy and drive the Talimena Scenic Drive.

I will share more picture from our next (and much easier on my feet) day Monday!

Astronomy

Astronomy ~daniellehuddlestonphotography.com

Any time we can use a Magic School Bus kit I jump at it!

It also helps that there is a Magic School Bus episode that goes along with the kit.

“Lost in Space”

Plus it is on Netflix right now!

light

constellations

We had a lot of trouble finding constellations using the star chart that came with the kit but thankfully I had my own.

constellations2

skyview

I also have “sky view” on my iphone!

The boys used it for a long time trying to find out what all the constellations looked like!

I really like that if you find a constellation, it gives you the outline of the animal or person that goes with it.

moonphases

moon

While learning about the moon phases and solar eclipses (using things that came with the kit) I realized that a solar eclipse was supposed to happen that same day!

phases

Thankfully I had a UV filter for my camera and was able to get some shots of it!

Plus, there was a live broadcast available online.

solareclipse

I am determined to buy the solar eclipse viewing glasses before the next one!

planets2

planets

telescope3

On the last evening of our month study I was finally able to find the moon with our telescope!

It only took me two years…

telescope2

telescope4

It looked incredible!

telescope

I was so excited that I finally found something with the telescope, I squealed.

Many times.

In a very high pitch.

And bounced.

Thankfully Nick is used to me by now.

You can check out my Pinterest board for Astronomy, here if you need more ideas.

We were learning about Astronomy to go along with learning about Ancient Greece!

I will post more about what we did to learn about Ancient Greece soon!