Hiking Hell's Gate

One of the highlights of our Christmas break was a day trip to Hell's Gate National Park, right next to Lake Naivasha. Another family invited us along to celebrate their daughter's 4th birthday. It was a great day and a fun adventure as a family. 

One of the cool things about this park is that it is one of the few where you
can get "up close and personal" with the wildlife, you can rent bikes and
hike throughout, but you still need to give baboons a healthy distance!

The park is named for the geothermal activities going on underground (and several hot springs that seep out of the rocks along the river). But, after seeing the narrow gorge for ourselves and hearing about flash floods that bring down boulders the size of cars into a "meat grinder of a cave" aptly named the "Devil's Bedroom," you would see why the name is perfect for other reasons as well. When the rangers saw the number of little kids we had they required TWO guides! We balked at this originally and then were quite grateful as they helped us scramble up waterfalls (like the birthday girl getting a boost-below) and taught us a lot about the area.

The scenery is breathtaking. You descend into the riverbed that has been carved by hundreds of years of water, and soon you are enclosed in historic layers of rock. 

Of course Claire was the first to volunteer on the
rope-climbing part! Her friend was right behind. Our
guides were impressed by the kids' energy and enthusiasm.

When you have Dutch friends, the natural activity for river fun
is building a dike (Even when the water is from a hot spring.)

Devil's Bedroom, at this time of year the waterfall is only a trickle.

Before: Full of energy...the kids ran down the trail ahead of us!

AFTER: 2 1/2 hours later, we were tired and ready for lunch! Those little legs did lots of climbing.