We drove about an hour and a half to our first stop. A place called Lake Arrowhead, which we dubbed "the lake beach". As you can see in the picture, it was literally a small lake with a man made area for swimming and beach activities. It didn't look like much from afar, but it was absolutely PERFECT! I was pleasantly surprised. The swimming area was roped off and had tons of shallow areas for kids to swim in along with a perfectly sandy bottom. No weeds or grime. The other thing that made it so great was the water temperature. It was warmer water than most pools I have ever been in. That paired with a nice 80 degree day, made for a really fun afternoon playing in the water and sand.
After our swimming, we got back in the car for about another hour of driving along the famous Skyline Road that runs along the ridge of Shenandoah National Park. The views were amazing!
We stopped at one of the many overlooks before making it to our campground.
It felt so good to be out of the humidity and heat of the city. Being so high up meant that temperatures were a very pleasant 70's instead of the upper 80's and 90's that we had at home. We set up our camp, and made the fire so that we could roast our dinner. Who doesn't like campfire curly dogs?
After dinner some clouds started to roll in. The kids decided to play cards at the table and there were a few sprinkles that started. It was at this point we decided we should probably be on the safe side and tarp our tent. We had been anticipating dry, hot weather, but it's better to be safe.
I should mention that at this point we had realized that we had forgotten a few key items. This included not one, but two of our sleeping bags, our hatchet for chopping wood, our extra rope, and some cooking equipment. We are used to camping with other people who usually have extra things in cases such as this. This time, we were on our own. Thankfully, we made do. Since it was warm at night we were able to get by with just 3 sleeping bags. Chris slept with a blanket, and Neil slept in a stack of blankets.
Unfortunately, things got a lot more interesting on that first night. The scattered raindrops that had started after dinner became heavier. Thankfully, our tent was tarped and ready for what came. As the kids played under the canopy we slowly started getting everything sorted for the night in case the rain continued or got heavier. We pulled the bikes in, picked up the cards, and started packing up food.
I forgot to mention...this is bear country. We were required to keep anything with any kind of scent in our car at all times. I wasn't really anticipating this, so we had lots of containers that all had to go back in the van at night. I knew about the food. I just didn't consider deodorant, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, and other small stuff. I wish I had been better prepared for that aspect.
Anyway, as we peacefully sat and watched our fire, the rain suddenly came with a vengeance. I am talking TORRENTIAL downpour. Within seconds the ground we were standing on was a giant puddle. We couldn't even ferry everyone into the tent under a giant umbrella without everyone getting totally soaked from head to toe. Chris and I had to somehow throw everything into the van and make for the tent. Nothing under our canopy stayed remotely dry. The rain came from every direction and it was incredible. Once inside the tent we had to strip down, find get in dry clothes, deal with terrified kids, and prepare for the worst. It was seriously the most rain I've ever seen at once. We looked out the front of the tent to see a giant puddle forming under the door. We devised a few solutions and strengthened our tarp. Then we picked up all of our things inside our tent in case we had any leaking. We all got in our sleeping bags and listened to the crazy storm that seemed to go on forever. I fully expected that we'd be wet in the morning, but we were committed at this point.
We woke up to a nice morning. We, along with all of our stuff, was dry. Our tent/tarp held true. We had weathered one of the craziest storms I've ever been in while camping, and I've seen some doozies. I'm grateful for all the camping lessons from my Dad. Being prepared really came in handy. Even if we forgot some sleeping bags. :)
Thankfully, that was the end of the rain for our trip. We didn't take any chances though. We reinforced our preparations and were ready for more. The wet clothes were hung up to dry in the sun, and we had a really great Saturday. We hiked down to a really beautiful 80 foot waterfall. It was only 1.5 miles, but it was pretty steep. I forgot the camera, and we were totally unplugged from our phones as well. Afterwards, we headed to the small camp store for a lollipop treat and then had lunch. We spent the afternoon riding bikes, relaxing, learning lessons about fire, and catching bugs. Burgers and root beers were on the menu for dinner. We also started our quest for the perfect group selfie using the timer on the camera.
Sunday was also another really nice day. The forest was absolutely beautiful! We spent the morning hiking again. This time on an easier trail looking at flowers and rock formations.
We stopped at another overlook on our way back to camp. This particular one had a small trail that led down to the famous Appalachian Trail (2200 mile backpacking trail that goes from Georgia to Maine). We couldn't pass up an opportunity to say that we walked along it. Chris has always wanted to do the Appalachian hike. It may be a while longer, since it sorta takes about 7 months.
We stopped again for lollipops at the camp store. I'm not sure if having unlimited access to more treats while camping is such a great idea. It was nice to enjoy them in the grass overlooking the large mountain meadow.
On Monday morning, we slept in until after 9 and made ourselves a tasty blueberry pancake breakfast. Then it was time to clean up and pack. It was almost noon when we rolled out of camp and stopped one last time for a lollipop.
It really was a great little getaway even with the forgotten items and the crazy storm. I had been worried that we'd get bored without other people, but that never happened. We had plenty to do, and everyone had a blast. Camping is the best!
2 comments:
Looks so fun! And your family pics are all super great, too!
oh man, wish we could have gone camping with you-that place looks great! although, maybe I would have come the NEXT morning and skipped the noah's ark flooding. ;)
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