The Vasquez Rocks

Tiburcio Vasquez

With Monday being President's Day and Dad was off since it was a government holiday, we decided to take the class out of the classroom and head out to Agua Dulce to visit the Vasquez Rocks Natural Park. Located on 932 acres, the park is located in the Sierra Pelona Mountains and contain many gorgeous rock formations that were formed from Volcanic and earthquake activity as well as from erosion.  The park is named for Tiburcio Vasquez, a California bandito who evaded capture from the law by hiding among the rocks from 1873 to 1874.


 Living in Southern California, the park is less than an hour away so we felt that it would be a great day trip for the kids before the weather started getting too hot.     So we packed up a picnic lunch and headed out early in the morning for a fun filled day of hiking and rock climbing.

If these rocks look familiar, it's most likely because you have seen them time and time again on TV and in movies.  Star Trekkies will instantly recognize them as the sight where Captain Kirk fought with Gorn.  Other TV shows that filmed at the rocks have been A-Team, The Outer Limits, F-Troop, and Murder She Wrote.  As for the big screen, they were also in the recent Sci-fi movie John Carter, The Flintstones, and Dante's Peak among others.

The weather was beautiful and the the temperatures were only in the mid 70's, perfect for exploring.  We explored front part of the park, close to where we parked for the first hour, where we studied various plants such as cactus and juniper (we also found some wild dill), lichen, and mosses.  We also found a few larger caves that we were safely able to explore and climb through.

 This particular cave was rather "kid friendly" with a pretty wide opening that opened to a vault with a ceiling of about 5 foot high.  It had a climb of about 20 foot once inside that led to a wide opening with shelf where we could take a break and look around for a bit.

Here's looking up to the Upper Opening .. The climb wasn't as bad as this picture makes it look.

At the mouth of the upper opening. 

 Dad found a nice lil shelf to lay on and take a siesta. 

Throughout the park, there were lots of crevices and slopes that the kids could safely climb, however, we did decide that we will be investing in hiking books for everyone.

After about an hour of climbing, we decided it was time to take a break and to eat some lunch.  After a wonderful picnic lunch of sandwiches, apple slices with peanut butter and trail mix, string cheese and lots of fluids, we were ready to explore some more..

We decided to check out this particular rock, one of the highest in the park.  This rock is easily 150 foot up, maybe more.  (Not the guy standing by the RV at the bottom of the picture)..

We got about halfway up and it got a little too steep for Ashleigh and Garrett (and Mom too because it was hard to safely climb with the camera) so we perched where we were at while Dad and Alyssa climbed to the top.  When they returned, they said that it was better that the kids hadn't made the climb as it was extremely windy at the top and it would have been unsafe for the kids.

After that climb, we decided to stay at ground level for a bit and check out some of the trails. We found this really neat area where we could really see the striations of the various layers of the stone as well as possible sleeping sites of the Tataviam American Indians.

While the kids were pretty loud while on our hike, we did manage to see a few birds and lizards who were enjoying the beautiful weather.  This lil guy was enjoying sunning himself on one of the rocks and was very nice to stick around while we took photographs of him.

There were so many really neat rock formations that we found (and we only explored a very small percentage of the park).

Looking at lizards under the bush.

After a few hours of hiking and climbing, we headed over to the Visitors Center/Gift Shop area for the park.  There we got to see a Red Tailed Hawk who was enjoying her dinner and then inside we found some displays of various snakes and arachnids located in the park. (Luckily we didn't find any of those).

Yes, This guy is very much alive.

So is this guy, much to the heebie geebies of mom.. lol 

The Gift Shop proved to be one an unexpected highlight of our trip.   Staffed by volunteers who enjoy helping educate the public, especially children, we met a wonderful older woman who spent a great bit of time showing the kids various displays and items that pertained to the spiders in the park.. The spider in the picture above had molted three times already and so the kids were able to look at (and even touch) the skins that had been shed.  They were also shown the borrow of a Trapdoor Spider where they were able to feel the silk lining inside, examine the silk hinge of the door and see how the trapdoor actually worked.  

We had such a wonderful time climbing and hiking and cannot wait to go back again.  We also found out that the Visitor center does various displays and presentations about wildlife throughout the week and will have to make plans to maybe attend a few of those during the summer.

It was an amazing field trip and I'm sure the kids will never forget it :)


This post is part of the the Homeschool Review Crew's Field Trip Inspiration Round up. For other great field trip ideas from around the country, be sure to click the image below :)

Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal (A Schoolhouse Crew Review)

Many homeschooling families are familiar with Apologia Educational Ministries. If you're like me, you probably have many of their books on your bookshelves at this very moment, most likely a book from the very popular "Exploring Creation" science series.  I was given the opportunity to review one of the newest additions to the "Exploring Creation" series - the BRAND NEW Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal.

Bright colors make it very appealing to children

The Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal is a 64 page, spiral bound softcover book to use to document field trips or other various outdoor exploration excursions. The book is about the same size and weight as a typical one subject spiral notebook and is not so bulky that it would not fit neatly in a backpack or carry bag when camping or hiking.   The pages are much thicker then typical notebook paper and are very durable and sturdy.  Each of the pages are printed in full color with vivid color accents to liven it up.  There are also full colored photographs of plants and animals that kids will really enjoy looking at.

 The book is divided up into 9 sections.  Each section has a suggestion page as to how best utilize the pages, however, these are mere suggestions. The beauty of this book is that depending on your child's level, it can be used as a logbook, a scrapbook, a doodle book, ect.  There's really no limitations, it can become what each particular child wants it to be.

 The first few pages give suggestions for preparing for a field trip up to a week prior for both teacher and students.  A whole slew of suggestions for field trip adventures are offered along with themes in which the suggestions would fall under. For example, if you were currently studying botany and plants, suggestions such as national parks, Arboretums, Lumber Mills and Botanical Gardens are mentions. History and Government?  Suggestions include city hall, a history museum or if you have the cash to spend, a trip to Rome.   Each topic has multiple suggestions that would fall into any price range.

Following the field trip suggestions is where the real uniqueness of this book comes in and where the fun begins.  Pages are included where children can keep a logbook of where they have visited, starting with their home state.  The date and destination can be recorded and if you write small enough, maybe a few short notes as a reminder of the visit. Two pages are dedicated to exploration of the their home state, followed by two pages to log travel through the United States, and finally there are two pages to document world travels.

An aerial map of one of our hiking trips

Each field trip is given two pages in which to document the trip. First, there's an area to write down books or other information used to plan for the trip. This is great for if you plan to make a return visit and might need those particular resources again.  There is a place for the time and date of your visit, an area to sketch an aerial view of where you are located as well as placed to write down emergency information like phone numbers or meeting places.  There is plenty of space for writing down information such as what we done on that particular trip, memories you wish to remember and any other notes you wish to keep for posterity.  The lines are all well spaced apart (and designed to look like wide ruled loose leaf paper) so that one does not have to write so small that it is not legible. I have rather large writing and I was easily able to write all of what I felt we needed to include.   There are enough pages to document 10 specific field trips in this section.

Journal pages filled out for one of our trips - Just needs our family photograph

 The next sections, "My Special Spot" and the "As I See It" pages are great for really connecting with the theme of "Exploring Creation". These are pages designed for kids to observe and document as they see fit.

The "My Special Spot" helps kids to pay attention to a specific area over the course of a year and observe seasonal changes to that area. There are pages for Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. A 4 x 10 square grid is provided for each season for kids to have a reference to work from from season to season, providing a visual reminder of where things were located and to see if they are still there, if they have moved, ect.  There is also a place to attach a photograph for each season as well as document temperature, rainfall, and notes they would like to include.

Finally, the "As I See It" pages provide an area for kids to observe and draw/document nature as they feel best interprets what they are seeing.  Some of these pages are themed, such as a page dedicated to "Predators and Prey", while other pages allow them to draw whatever they would like.. 

This review came to use the same time we stumbled upon Letterboxing and so it only made sense that we would use this book during our adventures.  Our very first letterboxing attempt took us out to Placerita Canyon State Park and the home of the "Oak of the Golden Dreams", which is #168 on the list of California Historical sites.

Before we arrived, we were able to make a very quick sketch in the "aerial map" area to show where we
wanted to go, as well as to jot down the key site seeing items we were hoping to find. After we got home that night, Mom was elected to fill out the pages for the trip, since everyone agreed that I had the most legible handwriting out of our family of 5.   Everyone had a great time that night reliving our hike as everyone told me what they wanted to have written down and remembered. The kids also had to point out a few things that I had not included on our aerial map, like a small man made pond in the butterfly garden.

We really liked how many of the pages are geared to allow the kids to personalize it.  From the very first page where they can put their name into it, to the various pages to allow them to sketch things as they see it, the kids had the opportunity to really feel this was more than a school book and they viewed it more as a fun extension of our trip that they could make their own. 

I think the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal was a hit with the family and gives us a souvenir of our adventures as we explore nature together.  We have a huge cross country trip coming up at the end of this month and I have no doubt this book will be packed and going with us as we make our way from California to Florida and back. We have spent the last few months planning what wonders we want to see on our drive and this will be perfect in documenting the Grand Canyon, the Alamo and the Gulf of Mexico. Without a doubt, it will be in the car with us on our travels as Ash and Garrett are really looking forward to filling the entire book up with lots of memories.

You can purchase the Exploring Creation Field Trip Journal from the Apologia website. 

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