Queen's View and the Whangie

I took the day off so Pedro and I could go adventuring before his next EMS.  We figured we could explore our little corner of Scotland a bit more.  I knew of a place, called Devil's Pulpit that is a part of Finnich Glen, which has these beautiful rock formations.  Pedro found another place, called Queen's View, with interesting rock formations as well that was on the way to Devil's Pulpit.  So we figured we'd go there first.  

From what we briefly saw on maps, Queen's View was a look out point, but we knew the Devil's Pulpit was a trail.  We packed up some water, rain jackets, and our cameras and set out in our best hiking boots. We never actually made it to Devil's Pulpit though.  

When we got to Queen's View, we saw beautiful mountains, and a small trail that we assumed led to the cool rock formations we saw online. We followed an elderly couple with hiking gear going towards the trail as well, so we followed them and found the entrance to the trail marked Queen's View.

We asked them if they knew the way to the rock formation, and they confirmed we were on the right trail. So we kept going, enjoying the views along the way. 

It was at this point we wondered if the rock formation we were looking for was not just up the hill like we thought.  This was turning more into the hike we were expecting at the Devil's Pulpit.  We saw another pair of hikers come through so we asked if they knew how far the rock formation was.

"Aye, The Whangie? The split rock?"

Pedro: "Yes, that's the one, do you know how far it is down the trail?"

"Never been there myself but the whole trail round is four miles, and it should be at around two."

Pedro and I looked at each other, gauging whether or not we wanted to continue on this unexpected hike, but the views so far had been worth the extra walk, s we decided this would be our hike today and we'd leave the Devil's Pulpit for another day.  We kept to the trail, occasionally asking the few hikers we saw if we were on the right track. We got tips and encouragement from those heading back, just trying to make it in before the rain.  

The clouds were slowly coming up behind us, and we had to briefly stop to put on rain jackets and cover our gear from the light rain starting.  We both ended up slipping and falling in the mud, but luckily we avoided falling on the rocks.  At least when we stopped to rest, the views made it all worth it. 

When we finally arrived, the rain stopped (thanks nature!).  The path split to go around or through The Whangie, so we took our time to explore.  We climbed up and around, and were able to see Loch Lomond through the rocks and take pictures before it started to rain again. 

When it started to rain again we headed back, slipping every so often.  We started calling the path 'invisi-slide' because it seemed no matter how safe the grass looked, we were sliding in the mud just underneath.  We made it down in one piece though, no regrets!