Grassland, Forest and Pond

We recently started a unit on habitats and I thought it would be fun to visit the habitats that we study (at least as many as we can). Thursday we took a trip to Mingus Mountain in Prescott. The plan was to explore a meadow, but we actually got to look at 3 different habitats in 1 day. There were 2 meadows in the area we went. One of the meadows was surrounded by a forest and there was a pond (it was called a lake, but it was more like a pond) in the middle of the other meadow.

We hiked through the forest enjoying the sounds of birds, the squishy-pine needle covered ground, the trees, bugs and a variety of mushrooms.

Jonathan and the kids also had fun climbing a tree.



Seeing the kids walk through the grass in the meadow reminded me of Little House on the Prairie. We were bummed not to see any wildlife, but I was excited to see some pretty flowers. Too bad I didn't take any pictures of them. We saw some foot prints and grasshoppers and felt the itchy grass.

Here are the kids hoping to see a frog.
My favorite thing about ponds is the cattails. I was so excited to find some there. We also saw some water bugs and spiders. The kids wanted to go in, but we would let them. What is it with kids and water?!?!

We also hiked to the fire lookout tower.
It was nice to get away from the hot weather and spend some time as a family.