Taylors Falls

Through a local radio station, I often get emailed half-off deals.  Most are to restaurants (get a $50 gift card for $25 type of thing.) I'm always on the look out for a great deal, so when I received an email with a deal from Wild Mountain, I just couldn't resist. Though I had heard of Wild Mountain, we had never been there. But with the boys getting a bit older, I thought it was the perfect time to give it a try.

Wild Mountain is about an hour drive away from our house. In the winter, it's used for snow skiing, but in the summer, they have a water park, go-carts, and alpine slides. With this being our first trip, I thought we'd try out the "dry rides" (the go-carts and alpine slides).

So we picked a date and watched the forecast closely. No rain was predicted so we loaded up the car, complete with ipad, dvd player and movies and off we went. Wouldn't you know it, we were about 10 minutes away from our destination when it started to rain. We continued on our way with the hopes that the rain would subside.

It was still raining when we arrived. Luckily after another 15 minutes or so it stopped, but unluckily for us, the dry rides would be closed most of the day until all the rain water had dried. So on to Plan B....

Well, we didn't really have a Plan B and cell phone coverage is awful in this area, so we couldn't properly research alternatives (I'm not sure how we used to function without access to internet 24/7). I knew the city of Taylors Falls was just down the road so we continued on towards town.

Taylors Falls is a quaint little town nestled along the hills of the St. Croix River. We parked in town and started walking aimlessly with the hopes of catching a glimpse of the river. Without even knowing it, we were just across the street from the visitors center, exciting hiking trails, gorgeous views of the river and Owen's favorite - pot holes (deep holes, sometimes filled with water, that were created by the glaciers.)

Resting near the river

Hiking up the steep trail

Enjoying time in the forest

Posing by the St. Croix

Standing by a moss covered pot hole

Enjoying the beautiful sights

We were about ready to leave when the rain started pouring down so we took shelter under a nearby building...well, the grown-ups did. The boys thought it would be more fun to play in the rain instead.

Our Plan B turned into an exciting adventure. We all enjoyed exploring the area and taking in the new sights. Of course, it would have helped to have more appropriate shoes (try hiking through rough terrain in flip-flops!)

The following weekend, we decided to try Wild Mountain again, and this time the weather cooperated. Our first stop was the go-carts. Owen enjoyed the ride, but Cole LOVED it! He sure loves speed. We may be in trouble when he gets his drivers license!

After the go-carts, we got in line for the alpine slides. The alpine slides are built into the mountain. To get to the top, you take a ski lift. I've ridden down one before (forever ago) and it was a blast. But now I had two little boys with me and I started to get a bit worried about the ride up the mountain. I'm happy to report we made it up the ski lift several times safe and sound. During one of the trips up the mountain, Cole decided to take his hat off and toss it overboard, but we eventually got it back after asking one of the workers to fetch it for us. While the ride up made me nauseous from the anxiety, the ride down was so worth it.