Custer State Park

In June, we camped at Custer State Park in South Dakota. It was a great, inexpensive, place to stay while visiting Mount Rushmore.

I am in love with Custer State Park. It's like a national park that just is run by a state. It was made a State Forest in 1912 and much of the buildings, including the following (the visitor's center) were built by the CCC.

For those who don't know, the CCC was one of the social programs of the Great Depression. The Civilian Conservation Corps put young men to work during the depression. They built bridges and roads, and frequently built picnic areas and buildings within state parks and national parks across the country (my favorite Texas State Park, Garner State Park, is full of CCC architecture). They built in an Arts and Crafts style. And their designs, very rustic and close to nature, often using locally found materials, is often referred to as "National Park Rustic." Anyway, I enjoy CCC architecture and was delighted to see it in the park.

There are a lot of bison in the park and can be easily seen. This picture is not zoomed in at all. I took it out my window as we drove past.

They like to hold up traffic, too:

As do the burros. Many, many years ago (I believe in the 1920s?) you could hire a burro to take you to Harney Peak. When that service was discontinued, the burros were just set free. Now a "wild" herd of burros live in the park and beg drivers for food. When we passed these, another group of people were beginning to approach the burros with pieces of bread. The park allows it, since they're somewhat domesticated (or at least are the descendants of domesticated animals), though they tell you to "use your judgement." (Unlike the bison--everywhere you go and on every brochure/map/etc. it states "Buffalo are dangerous. Do not approach.")

We saw a lot of other animals in the park, too. In addition to the animals I mentioned in the last post, I also saw pronghorn, mule deer, a beaver (I think), and a bat. Also in the park, though we didn't see any, are big-horn sheep, mountain goats, rattlesnakes, and mountain lions.
A very hard to see mule deer:

And, a hiding pronghorn:

We really enjoyed Custer State Park. It was a great place to camp, and there's a lot we didn't get to do. We just might go back sometime, notwithstanding the 6 hour drive. :)

Lake Sherando, Blue Ridge Mountain area of Virginia

Our experience at Lake Sherando was very mixed. We planned to camp there for two nights and enjoy the lake as well as other attractions in the area. We discovered when we got there, however, that the campground is really not suited to tent-campers, like us. The tent sites do not have bathrooms, water or electricity, so we opted for the water/electric sites, which are designed for RVers. There seemed to be a lot of RVer's that camp there every year for long periods, forming sort of a club-like atmosphere among the campers. I suppose it is really nice if you like that sort of atmosphere. We hated it. The sites are very small and close together. There was a nice woods with stream around the campsites, which my children enjoyed exploring and was a relief from the hemmed-in feeling at the campsite itself. The ground was a hard-packed sand-gravel mixture, which made driving in tent steaks hard, and cold and uncomfortable to sleep on, even with air mattresses. It was wet the whole time we were there, and even all our things made from paper warped (books, etc.) just from being there. The camp locks its gate at 10:00, which I suppose is necessary since the sites are so close together but means that there is a large line of cars/campers that come in at 9:45. My husband and daughter wanted to go to a Shakespeare play in the nearby town of Staunton, but since they would be getting back later than 10:00, they would not be able to get back into the campground. Lake Robertson locks its gates too, but they give the campers there a combination for the lock so that campers can get back in, but outsiders cannot. We elected to go back to Lake Robertson for this reason despite the fact we had already paid for our site for another night.

The next morning, however, we explored the lake there, which is gorgeous. We had a wonderful time there, and hated to leave it. My assessment of Lake Sherando is that it is a wonderful day park to visit for a swim in the lake, and good, I am guessing, if you like the comradery feel of RVing, but an awful place to camp if you are tent campers. Click here if you would like to see more pictures of the lake, but I do not have any pictures of the campsites.

Maple Canyon and Mount Pleasant

New Summer Adventure #4

This was not on my original list of plans, but I'm counting it. Because it was new. Because it is summer. Because it was a great adventure. I may just better count it as a substitute for Cherry Hill, because for the second year in a row, we just can NOT seem to make it there as a family. A perfect hot afternoon may still present itself though, so we'll see.

Also included in this adventure was a drive down Moroni's main street, and a visit to Mount Pleasant. Wonderful, wonderful stuff, and I'm going to share.

All the way to Nephi, as Zach watched the mountains east of us pass by, he began to get frustrated. "Mom, you keep driving AROUND the mountain. We need to go TO it." :o)



Maple Canyon is west of Fountain Green, which appeared to be known for not much but turkey farms. The neighboring canyon is nothing short of a rock-climber's paradise. There are steep, climbable rock faces on every side. Many of them are gold-colored and have what look like nubbly hand and foot holds all over them, it even appeared that they just might be ready to fall apart. Solid they were, though, and perfect for climbing up or repelling down.



I barely remembered to snap this picture as I was leaving.

We went up on a Friday night, and were neighbor campers with our good friends. I never took a walk around the campground, but it seemed not large, and still pretty empty. By nightfall, though, lots of people were showing up and in the morning too. And they were almost all of the same people you would see showing up at any given climbing gym. I did notice a couple of trail heads, but never went exploring.



Take a good look at Sean's hair. I just trimmed it, a VERY little bit though. I'm the only one that gets to hold the scissors until he is one year old. :o)



In the morning, the young women from our ward were coming to have a day of climbing and repelling, which my husband and the other dad were helping with. Teresa and I and the kids hung out until lunch, then we hurried and packed up to go kill time at her parents' house in Mount Pleasant. I have to pat myself on the back here, because I packed up and loaded our entire camp by myself in about a half hour. It helped that Teresa's kids are about the same age as my own so they entertained each other. Neither of us had room in our vehicles for the huge bag of trash. We left that behind for the fellas. :o)

Some things I loved about the drive to Mount Pleasant:
*You're on a back road and it just feels like you could drive as fast as you pleased and you'd never get caught.
*Sometimes you'd see a home, where they have lots of recycled trash art for sale. Tin can windmills and the like.
*The fence posts were NOT from Home Depot. Most of them looked like giant twigs.
*Two places caught my eye in downtown Moroni. The Moroni Opera House. (I've gotta wonder if it's ever used for what it was intended anymore...) The Next Chapter book and gift shop. (I should have stopped in for a peek)
*Then from Moroni to Mount Pleasant you're just passing sprawling fields and farms and my mind loves the slowing-down feeling that just plain happens when you drive somewhere like this. Ahhhh... I should use a memory like that to help me fall asleep at night.

Teresa's parents have some horse property so after a quick pit stop at their house we drove to the field. My kids loved feeding the horses barley, and with my help Ben even dared have them eat it right out of his hand. Ben also got a little ride (walk) around with the horse (an older girl was also on with him). He was so relaxed and just loved it--I'm happy that I got a good video of that. Zach got only got to sit on one of the horses, because they were a little touchy and lots of kids were interested.



I know. Mostly a picture of a horse's tail end. But what do you do?

Then came my favorite part. At the end of the property was a pond, some big trees, and a rope swing; I decided to drive down the gravel road where there was some shade and I could feed Sean in the car. The kids had a running start but I passed them and got to see their happy running faces as they tried to keep up and beat their friends. Don't ask me why I relished this, it was just magical.

Then more moments that I just wanted to bottle up, as I fed Sean in the car. I rolled the windows down so the perfect 75-ish degree air could blow through. In whatever direction you looked you could see only see one or two buildings. My view was perfect for watching the kids play at the pond, my boys contentedly throwing rocks and twigs in. Teresa's dad helped those that wanted to with the rope swing.



Teresa's oldest, who is nine, and his friend made a sudden discovery and came running over to show all of the other kids. They had caught a frog and needed a container for it. Teresa produced a tupperware, probably wondering if that frog would be her new family pet. :o) Eventually things were winding down and we had to head for home. I just left feeling like the day could very well be one of the prize jewels in my kids treasure box of childhood memories.

Camping in the Shenandoah Valley

If you are looking for a campground in the Lexington-Staunton area of the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, I highly recommend Lake Robertson. It has canoeing, hiking trails, a swimming pool (this wasn't open when we were there because it was so late in the season) and more. It is a clean, well-kept campground with large camping sites. The staff is friendly and helpful. They have a laundry room and have hot showers. We bought 8 pieces of wood for only $2, and rented canoes for only $5 per hour. The only down side is that it is a long, narrow 12-mile winding road that reaches the campground, which takes about a half-hour to travel at a safe speed.

Assateague Island, Maryland

If you enjoy camping, a wonderful spot is Assateague Island, Maryland. The beach is absolutely beautiful, although you do have to be careful of rip-tides, which can pull you out before you know it. Our kids held hands for safety.

We also enjoyed watching the little clams wash in with each wave and quickly bury themselves back in the water.

The National Park there has a National Seashore Museum with hands-on activities for the kids.

They also have three trails: a Life of Dunes, Life of Marsh, and a Forest Trail. At the Seashore Museum they will give you little booklets on each of these trails and the trails are so nice my husband was able to push me in my wheelchair on them.

But, the most fantastic part is seeing the wild ponies, which just wander the whole island. We saw them on a dozen different occasions, including just wandering by our campsite! Although you cannot touch them, they are wonderful to see, living wild and free.

And we had the added bonus of a wild deer wandering into our campsite. He just walked right up to my son, Sam.

Concert at the Gorge (George, WA)

I really like the Dave Matthews Band; I have from the first time I heard them. I would say that Erik LOVES the Dave Matthews Band. So much that at times I’ve thought “Enough, I’m going to go crazy if I have to listen to one more DMB song!” It turns out that the band loves to spend Labor Day weekend in the practically nonexistent town of George, Washington (ha ha) playing three consecutive concerts at the Gorge Amphitheatre. With Erik’s birthday on September 4 (usually over the Labor Day weekend), what a great gift but tickets to one of the shows! Even better, old friends, Fred and Kim are now living in Eastern Washington so they got tickets too and met us there. Here is a photo of the Gorge that I found online so you can see what a cool venue it is:

It was about a three and a half hour drive from Port Orchard (where we left the kids with Erik’s parents). Once we crossed the mountains the weather was beautiful and sunny! We got passes for the campground and waited for Fred and Kim. Once we could drive in together our quest for a camping spot began. The place was a complete and utter zoo! There were plenty of people left over from the Friday show and there was zero order (park in rows? Don’t be ridiculous!). We finally found a spot near the back cow field which was actually close to one of the few remaining road-sized paths in the humongous field used for camping. Lots of hanging out, drinking, snacking, talking, etc.

Finally it was time to head over to the concert. Silly me, I was just following Erik and Fred as Kim and I chit chatted almost the entire hike over to the amphitheater. Also realize that at this time 1) it is still light out and 2) everyone is migrating to the same location. This will become important later. At the show we parted ways because Erik and I had tickets in a different section. AWESOME tickets I might add—the fourteenth row! I could see everyone on stage with my own eyes! Totally clearly, it was great. I was so bummed though because I realized that they didn’t care if you brought small cameras. I don’t know if that is the band’s policy, or all concerts are like that because they have given up trying to keep cameras out. I remember reading the rules and seeing “no professional cameras” which made me wonder if that meant you could take small cameras, but I wasn’t going to risk getting my camera confiscated. So I was kicking myself as everyone around me whipped out their cameras for cool shots. And they are all lazy because I can’t find ANY of those photos on the web yet. I stole a few shots from the DMB fan site; they are from concerts earlier this summer:


Before the show began they played some old Beastie Boys. I was laughing and asking Erik, “I wonder how many people here are too young to know what this music is?” Then I about died when, during the concert, they performed a cover of “Sledgehammer”! One of my least favorite Peter Gabriel songs, but they did a great cover of it. Again though, how many people didn’t know what that song was? It also seemed very fitting since the last really great concert we went to happened to be Peter Gabriel, so we had been reminiscing a little about that earlier in the evening.

The show was simply incredible. I thought I liked DMB before, but they are so much better live! I can see why they have such a following. However, I don’t see how people AFFORD to follow them, those tickets weren’t cheap! There was a couple sitting behind us who had flown in from Minnesota and were going to all three nights. Wow! It would be kind of cool though because they perform completely different shows each night of the weekend. It amazes me how much good material they have to choose from. Here is the set list from our show (again, thanks to the DMB fan site):

08/30/2008
Dave Matthews Band
Gorge Amphitheatre
George, WA

Dreaming Tree *
One Sweet World *
Stay Or Leave *
Two Step *
The Song That Jane Likes *
Grey Street *
Louisiana Bayou *
Out Of My Hands +
Sugar Will *
Jimi Thing *
Sledgehammer *
Pantala Naga Pampa *
Rapunzel *
Stolen Away On 55th & 3rd *
Crush *
So Much To Say *
Anyone Seen The Bridge *
Too Much *

Encore:
Sister ~
Hey Hey My My (Into the Black)
Stay (Wasting Time) *

Special Guests:
* Jeff Coffin
+ No Horns, Dave on piano
~ Dave, Tim, Carter and Rashawn

After the show Erik and I waited in line to buy shirts and then started our trek back to the campground. Note to self: take a flashlight next time you go to the Gorge. It is DARK out there! And once you get to the campground it is extra dark and everything looks the same. And it’s huge. I was with Erik and he has an amazing sense of direction. But I remember stifling a feeling of panic as we seemed to roam endlessly around searching for our campsite! We finally got back around 12:30. I saw a lantern out and yelled “We’re here!” But no one else was there. Hum. To make a long story short (oops, too late), Fred and Kim had decided to race each other back to the campsite. Unfortunately Kim took a wrong turn and got lost! Of course she didn’t have her cell phone on her. I waited at the campsite in case she arrived there while Fred and Erik went on the hunt. Amazingly enough, they found her! Praise the Lord for cell phones! I can’t imagine how completely frightening that must have been. I know I would have lost it—they didn’t get back to the campsite until 1:30.

After a freezing night with bad camping gear (ergo, hardly any sleep) we packed up bright and early to start our trek back to Port Orchard. On the way out we stopped at the scenic overlook to get a photo (self-portrait). I was thinking if we had been smart we would have stopped on the way there—I must have looked better twenty hours earlier.Hopefully we'll be heading back to the Gorge again, it was great.

Tuckahoe Park

For years now we have been taking our kids to the "Tire Park" at Tuckahoe. It is a wonderful playground made out of recycled tires. This year, however, we decided to camp there so we could do more of the things they offer. The campsites are comfortable; set in the woods. The kids had a wonderful time hiking and exploring in the woods and even found a cute little bridge over a stream. Once we had set up camp, we went canoeing on the lake there and then we played a golf type game with flying disks. We all had a wonderful time and plan to do it again in the spring.

Camping at Chatfield

We recently went on our first camping trip as a family of 5. It was just a little trip; just one night. We camped at Chatfield State Park, close to home here in the Denver Metro area. I prefer camping in the mountains, since the plains are so flat and shadeless, but we're working up to going further away.

Practically the only shade in the whole campsite when we set up was the shade created by our tent. Next time I am so buying a dining fly.

Our campsite

We wanted to wait until it cooled off a bit before starting dinner, since it involved building a fire. 7pm was as long as the boys would wait. We built a fire (after borrowing some matches from a neighbor, since ours didn't work. We forgot that ours weren't strike-anywhere matches and didn't bring the box) and roasted some hot dogs. Thomas said, "I can't believe I'm learning to cook hot dogs!" Yeah, Thomas. You're learning to cook, if learning to cook means sort-of holding a stick over a fire that your mom put a hot dog on. :)

Henry was pretty good while we cooked, but got a little lonely during dinner, so he and I hung out while I ate my hot dog. Most of the evening he sat in his stroller.

After dinner we went for a walk. We walked over toward the amphitheater to see if there were any ranger talks that evening. There weren't, but James and Thomas enjoyed putting on a show for us.

After it got dark, we made s'mores. Thomas and James thought it was fun to roast marshmallows and thought s'mores were pretty good, even if they did keep calling them smears.

After awhile, the boys got restless and decided they wanted to go to bed (which really means that they wanted to play in the tent). It took awhile to get everyone to bed. Matt and I sat by the fire for awhile before going to bed around 11:45pm.

Unfortunately, I didn't fall asleep until about 3am, just 15 minutes or so before Henry woke up screaming. He usually sleeps through the night, but I think the cold woke him up (he was well bundled, but nonetheless). I fed him and let him snuggle with me to warm up and he went back to bed. By 6am, everyone was up. I'd had 2 hours of sleep. But, that's okay. Camping is still fun. Next time we will bring warmer pajamas and softer sleeping pads (maybe an air mattress or cots).

This is what we saw as we opened the tent door in the morning:

Thomas and James enjoyed counting the hot air balloons. At one point, there were seven of them in the air. After making pancakes for breakfast on our Coleman stove, we broke camp and headed home.

It was a lot of work, but still fun. Next time we will camp longer (one night campouts are more work than otherwise with all the set up and take down in one 24 hour period). The main point of this campout was to fine-tune our camping plan and be sure which equipment was best before heading further away. All in all it was a fun experience. James and Thomas are already asking when they can go again!