Black Diamond Mines Hike

This summer our ward has tried to come up with a weekly schedule of activities for us to do with our kids. We have been having a great time together. Today we planned to go to Black Diamond Mines in Antioch for a small paved 1/2 mile hike with the children. We packed our lunch and headed over to the beginning of the trail to meet with the rest of our group at 11:30. The kids all hung out and waited for the rest of the group. We ended up waiting for 30min or so for the other half of our group to arrive. Then we started the hike. The kids started off running up the hills and enjoying themselves. Then one by one the little ones broke down, including Aubrey(I ended up carrying her).So my friend Kathryn and I tried to play games along the way to keep them busy. The game where we all hold hands to form a train worked well.

Finally we made it to the top of the hill. The destination was called Rose Hill Cemetery. We ate lunch and took a group photo of the kids playing in this giant tree after the hike. Except for Aubrey she wanted nothing to do with climbing in trees or getting her picture taken. We had an opportunity to walk around the cemetery and learn that very little remains of the coal mining communities. This historic cemetery serves as a monument to the lives of the former residents. Buried here are children who died in epidemics, women who died in childbirth, and men who died in mining disasters and of other things. Although over 10 nationalities resided in the mining area, Rose Hill Cemetery was a protestant burial ground, and many of the people buried here were Welsh.

As we left Black Diamond Mines with very tired children I did manage to take a couple of pictures of the area. This would be lovely in the spring when everything is green.