Richland Creek
May 21, 2006
I don’t remember what motivated me to
take the boys on the long drive to Richland Creek, but it was a
great idea. Once we turned onto dirt road outside of Ben Hur
(how did the community get that name anyway?) I let the boys
ride in the bed of the pickup. When we passed Falling Water
Falls, which was running nicely, the boys hollered for me to
stop. But there was already a group of people there so I
continued on.
We had an early dinner of Lunchables in the
lower picnic area of the Richland Creek campground, then set
out for a hike and swim. We had to wade across a shallow
Falling Water Creek to reach the hiking trail on the south side
of Richland Creek. The trail stayed high up above the creek.
About a half mile up the trail I started seeing these huge
boulders in the middle of the creek, and announced to the boys
that we were heading down to the creek, trail or no trail.
I brought my backpack and big camera, but
was too busy following the boys around to use it. Luckily I had
the point-and-shoot camera too. After one dip in the cold
mountain water, the boys tried to stay dry. They saw their
first bullfrog tadpole, and tried to catch crawdads.
Long before we wanted to leave, it started
getting dark so we started heading back. We found a spur trail
that took us back to the main trail. We were back to the truck
in 20 minutes.
Though I had seen Richland Creek a few
times in the past, this was my first time to get to know it a
little better. And I did so in the best of company.
