Bay City State Recreation Area

Where: Bay City State Recreation Area, Michigan
Trail: Lagoon Trail
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: less than 1 mile loop
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

If you're looking to go for a walk, it's a good place to do it. If you actually want to hike, it's pretty lame. The trail isn't very long and it's pretty uninteresting.

Ash Cave Gorge

Where: Hocking Hills, Ohio
Trail: Ash Cave Gorge
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: 1/2 mile round trip
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

The Gorge Trail is easy, much of it being paved and wheelchair accessible. There is a small, but tall waterfall that makes for interesting pictures. Ash Cave also has a Rim Trail, but we didn't hike it.

Monument Hill & Kreische Brewery

Where: Monument Hill & Kreische Brewery State Historic Sites
Trail: all trails
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: less than 1 mile loop
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash


We started in the parking lot and headed for the Kreische Woods Nature Loop, crossing a tiny bridge over a tiny creek. At the trail kiosk, we switched over to the Schulenburg Ferry Trail. We took that to the upper bridge and crossed over to the Brewery Lane Trail, which took us to the brewery ruins. After that, we took the Kreische Stairway Trail. This was pretty cool because it had stone stairs to climb. We passed a barn and a smoke house as we took the Scenic and Historic Trail to the Scenic Overlook. After that, we took the trail back around to the parking lot. This was a great hike for kids--it wasn't too strenuous and it was visually interesting with bridges, rocks, stones, stairs, etc.

Highbanks Trail to Iargo Springs

Where: Huron National Forest, Oscoda, Michigan
Trail: Highbanks Trail (Canoer's Memorial to Iargo Springs)
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: 3.5 miles round trip
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

The Highbanks Trail is 7 miles long (one way). Because I was hiking with an 8-year-old and a small dog, I chose not to hike the entire length. Instead, we hiked from the Canoer's Memorial to Iargo Springs, which is about 1.75 miles one way. Iargo Springs was a good place to stop, rest, and have a snack, before hiking back to the car.

The hike is pretty easy, mostly flat dirt paths. We did wander off the path in a few places to check out the sand dunes.

The most strenuous part of the hike was when we took the 294 steps down to the river at Iargo Springs (and then had to climb back up them). After that, we still had to hike almost 2 miles back to the car at Canoer's Memorial.

Taughannock Falls State Park

Where: Taughannock Falls State Park, New York
Trail: Gorge Trail
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: 1.5 miles round trip
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

The trail is wide and well-groomed. Because of the short distance to the falls, there were a lot of tourists. The water was low and we ended up walking in the creek-bed--hopping rocks and wading in the water until we got closer to the falls, which made the "hike" a lot more fun than if we'd just stayed on the trail.

Generally, I am all about getting as close to the waterfalls as possible [which is probably why I almost fell off a waterfall once], but in this case, I heeded the warnings and stayed on the right side of the barrier. Rocks are constantly breaking and falling into the pool at the base of the waterfall (sometimes injuring or even killing tourists who decide to get too close). This is one place that I would highly recommend following the rules on.

Pine Haven Recreation Area

Where: Pine Haven Recreation Area, Sanford, Michigan
Trail: Pine Haven Loop, Mud Creek Loop, Riverside Ravine
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Distance: 1.5 miles, 1 mile, .2 miles
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

Pine Haven has over 13 miles of trails in its 325 acres. The main trails are wide enough to hike side-by-side as a group.

Here is the route we took: [see map] Parking lot to marker A to B to C to H to I to J to K to L to M to N to O to P to the parking lot.

Sam Houston National Forest

Where: Sam Houston National Forest
Trail: Lone Star Trail
Difficulty: Easy to Moderate
Distance: no idea
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

Unfortunately, I have no idea how far we hiked because we didn't have a map, which is probably why we got lost on our way up to the forest. [Mapquest sent us to a road that didn't exist. We had to call a friend in another state to look up directions for us.] The weekend following this trip, I discovered a tick on Toby--this has been our only encounter with a tick.

Brazos Bend State Park

Where: Brazos Bend State Park, Texas
Trail: Red Buckeye and White Oak Trails
Difficulty: Easy
Distance: 1.5 mile loop and 1.8 mile loop
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

Being that it was December, the park was brown and not very scenic. Still, it was a nice hike and beautiful weather to enjoy it.

Sheldon Lake State Park

Where: Sheldon Lake State Park, Texas 
Trail: Pond Loop, Bent Pine, Swamp Rabbit, Kinglet, Armadillo Trails
Difficulty: Easy
Distance:1.5 miles
Adventure Rating: 1 Star
Pets: Allowed on leash

Since there were few trails, we hiked them all. The Pond Loop trail allows you to observe each pond--which we did after seeing the beware of alligators sign. We finally saw an alligator at the second to last pond. It was laying in a tree, which I still find weird. Other than the alligator, the park wasn't all that exciting. Perhaps the canoe trails would've been more interesting.