North Carolina Arboretum

We woke up this morning and headed out of Asheville to the North Carolina Arboretum. This place was so serene. We walked the paved paths checking out all of the beautiful waterfalls and landscaping and then checked in at the main desk for our fun activity of the day…Geocaching. I have wanted to try this for a while and I thought what better way than to do it on vacation. We checked out a GPS and started our treasure hunt. Grace ran the GPS for the first geocache, ‘Wild Child.’ It took us off the beaten path and was really difficult to find. Whoever had hidden it before us did a great job! We traded a little football for a kaleidoscope. Then Emma took over the GPS. She wanted to find ‘Stream Time.’ This one had better hints and was a little easier to find…between a V of trees. We traded our kaleidoscope for a horse head. Then Norah took over and led us toward the ‘Root of all Matter’ which was sneakily hidden under a downed tree. We hiked all over the arboretum looking for geocaches and it was a new twist on hiking that we all really enjoyed. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful hike or a more beautiful morning, the weather was perfect!

The arboretum was absolutely beautiful with all of its paths, bridges and waterfalls. 

I must take a lot of photos, the girls have started making up poses to do...I promise I have nothing to do with these, I just want a snapshot. 

Mark and Grace trying to get some hints for where the difficult 'Wild Child' must be buried. 

Signing the log book. 

Emma in charge of the GPS. She kept us on the trail most of the time. 

Trading in our finds and signing the book.

Emma thought it was awesome that her name would be in the book FOREVER. 

Watch out...Norah's in charge.

The 'Root of all Matter' was a great clue. Check out those roots. 

Norah and I trading in our horse head for a slap bracelet. 

What a beautiful day for some hiking!