Went Hiking. It Was Nice

What I did shouldn't be called "hiking". Meandering is more like it since I do not hike, I lumber. Firstly, I'd like to say what a beautiful, mosquito and gnat filled park is Valley Stream State Park. I felt like Cletus The Slack-Jawed Yokel the way the swarmed my face. Did not occur to me to use bug spray.

Secondly, I have never seen a barbecue area so empty.

And then I realized I'd never been to a barbecue area in a park at 10 am on a Tuesday. Apparently, nobody else has either.












Thirdly, look how gorgeous this park is:

 This is the soccer field. This park abuts the Southern State highway. You wouldn't know it to look at it.












The trail is very deceptive. It feels as if you are in the deep forest but there is one point where these are the two views you see by turning your head just 90 degrees.

There is a playground in the second view.










Still, there is a point where all you see are views like this all the way around:

I was looking forward to finding the creek that was on the map. Alas, this is it:

Hubby thinks it dried out. I say it was filled in with sand. Dry creek beds usually have different sized smooth boulders and pebbles, not sand. My take is that it was filled in because us bumbling city meanderers kept falling into it.

Finally, the state park knew I was coming because they left this right in the deepest part of the trial.