Marion Mountain to Little Round valley overnighter

[matt k]

A friend and I decided to take our sons on an overnight trip up to Little Round Valley. My sons are ages 8 and 11 and his son is 10. We unfortunately got a much later start than planned due to some unforeseen circumstances the morning of our trip(dead car battery, broken strap on one of the kids packs etc.) We did finally hit the trail about noon. Knowing that the Marion Mountain trail is quite steep, we took a very slow pace, stopping often and letting the kids explore. They really enjoyed finding good spots to filter water, even when we didn't need any. Stopping frequently made it less monotonous for the boys which qualls the "when are we going to get there" comments. The boys also had a lot of fun climbing on the many large rocks along the trail. After about 4 hours of hiking and 3 hours of exploring, we finally made it to Little Round Valley. There was only one other group camping and we could not even see or hear them from our site, so we had a feeling of being on our own in the wilderness. Very cool feeling for all of us. We were all pretty tired after a rather long day and by 9:00 we were all asleep. Due to a previous engagement, we were not able to go to the summit but this gives us a great excuse to go again. Sunday morning we broke camp at 9:00 and headed back down to the truck. We reached the truck at 12:30 and were home in time for an afternoon pool party. All in all we had a great time and all the boys want to do it again, so I have to consider the trip a success, even though we didn't hit the summit. By the way, my son lost a pair of sunglasses aound the 3 mile point. They are black with orange on the sides. They are not expensive, but he bought them with his own money so he was rather upset. If anyone happened to find them, I will gladly pay the postage to get them back. Thanks to everyone who posts on this board. It is full of very useful information.

[halhiker]

Thanks for the report. My sons are 9 and 12 and I'm going to take them up this summer, too. My older son is not an outdoor type but the younger one loves to explore.

I don't think I'll be as ambitious as you. I think we'll just go up the Tram and go from there. We've done plenty of day hikes up there but I think it's time for an overnight adventure.

Hope someone finds the glasses.