Happy New Year!

It is a beautiful 1st day of January here in our neck-of-the-woods!

So, after watching the Rose Bowl Parade,

we decided to have a parade of of our own,

just down our hill and around Swofford Pond! : -) 

 

 At the end of our normal little walk down to the spillway,

there is a trailhead that takes the hiker

around the backside of the pond.

It seems to have been recently updated with nifty trail markers

and bridges over the little streams and creeks.

At this point, we ditched the bikes and stroller,

and Joe and Ben hitched a ride on the horses!  

 

In the place we stopped below,

we could see our house on the hillside across the pond!

It can be seen in the picture when zoomed in on!

 

 Just one of the nifty bridges someone made

to make this hike a very pleasant one!

And Gracie did great walking across them!

 

The only thing we wished we had known about this wonderful nature trail,

is that it is NOT a thoroughfare trail

as we originally figured on.

It takes you just shy of the road that would finish off a very nice loop back to our van waiting at the bottom of our hill. 

Now we know, however, that this beautiful trail
ends abruptly with no warning at the edge

of a swamp!  

But, thankfully, a very nice neighbor at the end of the road we were hoping to get to and at the edge of this wildlife property, allowed us to enter his property, and even offered to drive us the short drive back to our van!

Then, we drove back to the trailhead to pick up the stroller and bikes and saw Mr. Otter in the pond.  He was alone today, so I hope Mrs. Otter is okay.  (or vice-versa : -)