Hiking the "Too Peaceful Forest"

Last week we took a day off in the middle of the week to avoid the weekend crowds.... We got a ride about an hour out of town and found this fantastic strip of land, the "Too Peaceful Forest." It's a patch of small mountains snuggling just right with a little river to leave a trail of waterfalls, 6 or 7 of them and all good sized, that we saw before we turned around to head home. So, soo beautiful.

But this is China, and things are often different than I would expect, or maybe desire... even after we've lived here nearly four years. Instead of leaving this beauty untouched, this "forest" was made available to more people by having the path paved. I guess there are advantages (for the masses) to this approach.

At our highest spot, there was a loud speaker blaring dumb pop music. Would no one would want to hear the crash of this, the largest and loudest fall? Such a not peaceful intrusion on such magnificent beauty. That part made us really sad, but we still greatly enjoyed the day.

Taking off on the hike. I was surprised that several of these dressed up "hikers" made it as high up the trail as we did but most of them lost the shoes before long, buying simple flat soled pairs at stands along the way.

She was all twinkle toes and skipping for the first 20 minutes.... and she made it on her own two feet for almost the entire 5 hours.

Our lunch spot. I need to continually remind myself that places like this are not going to be private, quiet, restful, away from the crowds any day of the week. Sometimes I feel like we're a travelling circus, like our friends around us think we've come so that they can touch and stare and talk away about the color of our kids' hair and eyes. It might sound cute or funny, but it does weigh heavy day after day and I need lots of grace to deal well with this. I so enjoy a good conversation with new people we meet, but the staring, picture taking, poking and prodding.... ah!

After what felt like 23 people posing with the circus animals.... I mean, one of our kids or another... I finally decided that if they can all snap pictures, so can I. You can maybe tell that this wasn't the highlight of her day? Oh for grace for all of us!

About 3.5 hours in, we were still a way from the tallest waterfalls so we did it, we caved in and bought tickets for the "basket car" to the top. Not something Matt is proud of, but for the kids sake even my mountain man agrees that it was worth it.

There were butterflys. We saw so many and some incredibly large ones. The first one, black with bits of vibrant blue (I never got a great shot), was probably 5-6 inches tall and his wing span must have been, as wide as my hand stretched out. When I first saw it I thought it must be a bat. He looked like he’d weigh half a pound. This one was smaller.... maybe about the size of the palm of my hand.

And there was this pair of dragon flies, yes probably stuck together for good reason. They first landed on John and then snuggled on Matt's arm for a while.

The kids did great for the whole hike but by the end of the climb they were absolutely wiped. Soon after we snapped this shot (below), we laid eyes on the parking lot (around 3:30pm) and Marian let out a cry and I knew she meant it. I picked her up and she laid her head down on my shoulder and she was almost instantly asleep, minutes before we reached the car.

Good Hiking. Together. Fantastic Beauty. Amazing Creator. Wonderful Day. Abundant Thanks.