We started off in Hollingsclough, headed down Carr Lane until we reached a house with a shed that house an honesty policy shop inside, a great unexpected find and very much welcomed at the end of the hike.
From there we simply followed the path along, over a small footbridge which itself traverses a small stream, the sort which the kids always love going over and into a field with what can only be the funniest sounding sheep we’ve ever had the privilege of meeting, until we reached an unnamed road.
From there we headed left, to the right of the road is Park House Hill, a very impressive shard of rock that seemingly pierces the Earth. As impressive as it looked we decided not to venture up, the youngest would have struggled and with the problems I have with my body, I’d have likely struggled too.
So we carried on up Chrome Hill, the track is pretty steady at this point, more able bodied would have probably shot up a lot faster than myself, but as we were going up at a 3 year olds pace, it was more than fine and enabled us to take stock of where we were and appreciate the scenery a lot more.
We stopped for a spot of lunch out 2/3’rds up, at the time we went the foot traffic was a lot less than you’d get elsewhere in the Peaks like Edale or Castleton for example.
After lunch we carried on up, the last section is pretty steep and some gentle persuasion was needed to get the youngest up, but she managed it and we were rewarded with gorgeous views, we’ve been all over the Peak District over the years but never this area, so it was really nice to see something different and is distinctively flatter than other areas of the region I think.
When we began our decent on the other side we soon came to realise “why” it was called “Dragons Back”, the strange undulations in the ridge made it look like the scaly spine of a Dragon, which is really cool to see with the naked eye and something pictures can’t really give justice to.
At various points along the route, the bare rock is exposed, it’s mainly Lime Stone (i think) normally I don’t really take notice things like this but the whole scale and patterns in the geology of it all is really cool to just stop for a minute or two and examine how they’re formed.
As we ventured ove the “humps” we bared left and around the horse shoe shaped geology passing a farm to the right, we did end up making a wrong turn and going in complete circles over stream we didn’t need to cross, but it added something to giggle at when we got back.
After that it was pretty much as case of follow the track back to Hollinsclough, taking in the views of where we had just ventured.
