The short version:
Field Trip.

8th Graders.

Hell's Gate National Park.

Beautiful :)

The long version:
Yesterday I had the privilege to go on the 8th grade Science field trip to Hell's Gate National Park. Look it up. It's by a volcano. Only an hour from campus, and that's really only because Kenyan roads leave much to be desired. I took a billion pictures, and my students took my camera and took a billion pictures, so I figured I should share at least some.

We started out by driving up the hill a little further and stopping at a lookout point to view and study Mt. Longonot, an active volcano right across the valley, providing a beautiful backdrop to this "school in the clouds." However, this was a new viewpoint and it reminded me of how stunning the volcano really is... not to mention how luck we were to have the incredible cloud coverage that increased the "oohs" and "ahhs" from my kids.

From there we headed through Naivasha and on to Hell's Gate National Park. There was a little bit of traffic issues, but we finally made it...
Almost as soon as we were through the park gates the kids were in complete awe of the scenery surrounding us. Huge cliffs towered to the side of us as we drove to Fishers Tower, a plug (I think that's the right term?) from an eroded volcano. The kids loved this and kept trying to sneakily climb it. We then climbed up a VERY steep hillside to a cove and learned about the rock intrusions. Funny sidenote: At Fishers Tower they learned about the rock-type Obsidian. Since it's easy to identify, they sort of held on to that piece of knowledge. Well the rock intrusions we saw were FULL of obsidian, so as we reached the cove, the students at the top were yelling to the kids on their way up "Guys, you should SEE the Obsidian up here!!" and "WHOA!! Look at the Obsidian, Miss Scott!!" haha it was so funny to see them so excited about a rock :) cute.
Hiked back down, took fun pictures, moved onward.

We came to a viewpoint where we looked at the zebras grazing in the valley. If you notice in the picture below, you'll see some steam coming out of the ground in different parts along the valley. We learned these are steam vents that help produce anywhere from 8-15% of Kenya's electricity. The kids were amazed by this...This was a huge grasshopper-type-thing that crawled onto someone's leg. The kids all started chanting "Eat it, Eat it, Eat it!" at me so I did....

Just kidding, don't worry Mom :) We saw warthogs all over the place.. lots of Pumba love :)
By now we were all starving (we missed our chai treats!) so we headed to the picnic area and fueled up before hiking the Gorge.

Sad they don't have more food :(There were baboons all over the picnic area (hence the signs), and they didn't seem to mind us getting very close, though no one was brave to get much closer toOff we went on a 2 hour-long hike through Hell's Gate Gorge. This place was BEAUTIFUL. Random fact: This is where part of Tomb Raider was filmed. I haven't seen it, but I've decided I want to now. We climbed down cliffs, "showered" under both hot and cold springs, and saw a green mamba... which was hard to keep the boys away from.One of the cliffs we climbed down... Here the guide is pointing to where the water level was in 1994. It was cool to see how much it's changed in 15 years...

Praise God, we climbed out just before it started raining and made it back to the bus mostly dry.
I am so incredibly thankful to have had that time with my students... they are absolutely a BLAST to be around and ridiculously hilarious to watch, so it an incredible experience. Most of all, it was such a beautiful day to experience the beautiful creation of our God. So many times I heard the students in awe of how amazing everything looked.. as was I. It was so sweet to praise God through that and to take time to really look at His work.