An Accidental Vacation Part 3: Swallow Falls State Park.

So I figured while we're off on our completely planned for and normal vacation I would finish the story of the vacation we took completely by accident.  Today we head to Swallow Falls State Park.  but first to recap:

We're in the Deep Creek Lake area of Maryland after the Drecho caused us to go off the road and total our car (see part one).  Our friends from DC have met us here because DC has no power.  We're staying in a small, random (but thankfully clean) motel because everything is booked for the Fourth of July Holiday. (see part two)

So.  We debated going back to the beach but honestly I have a real beach - one with waves, sand, and a body of water big enough to not be able to see across - 10 minutes from my house.  I am not impressed by inland man-made lakes.  As pretty as they are they kindof freak me out.  Perhaps I've just seen too many movies... Anyways!  We decided instead to head to Swallow Falls State Park.  This park was highly recommended to us by the guy at the Visitor's Center.  And with nothing to go on but that we figured why not.

After a fantastic picnic lunch of all of the food that our DC friends brought for fear it would go bad because they had no power:



We strapped the kids in and headed out for a hike:

First stop was the Muddy Creek Falls.  Which according to the google and our guru at the visitor's center is the highest waterfall in Maryland:

That's Matt up there looking over the edge.  Somewhere I have a shot of him doing the same thing in Yosemite.

What's really cool about it, though, is that they let you get really close to it: 

Under it. Around it. All up in it:

 

After I took those pics I ditched the camera for a solid hour while we played in a waterfall.  The kids were too little to go behind it but they had so much fun playing on the rocks.  And thought it was pretty amazing to see Mommy and Daddy peeking out from behind a waterfall.  We stopped for some posed shots before leaving the area:

I look so, so tired.  I was.  But I was also having so, so much fun.

We then hiked for awhile along the Muddy River:

 to the Youghiogheny River which featured a natural rock waterslide.  YES:

Oh so much fun.  The kids were too small to do that but we floated them out to a big, flat rock in the center of the river for some splashing and playing.  The Dude almost took his first steps here.  In the middle of a current.  Insane. Also insane?  The path we took to get out of the riverbed:

I was nervous but Matt pack-muled the kids out wonderfully.  There was one more stunning waterfall to play in:

But by that point we were all funned out.  And hungry.  So we got some dinner at a place with a view of the lake:

And said goodbye to our friends:

We decided to stay in Deep Creek Lake for one more night.  We weren't sure if we needed to be in Sommerset the next day to meet with the insurance adjuster so we figured we'd position ourselves so that we could stop on the way home if necessary.  Our friends headed home hoping that DC wasn't too post-apocalyptic what with the power being off for several days now.

It turned back on hours before they got home.

Things were finally starting to work out for us!

Stay tuned for Part 4 - the adventure home!