Camping over Memorial Day

After many years of staying away from camping this weekend, P and I decided to head back into the woods. We have some really good friends who were willing to go with us and actually they did all the planning as we more or less just joined them on a trip they already planned.  I have been excited about this trip for weeks and the funny part was I really didn't know where we were going.  When anyone ask me or hubby where we are going we would say, I don't know we are going with J and H. We knew that it was about an hour and a half from home as J needed to return on Sunday to church.  We did a little planning, unpacked our camping gear that we haven't used in years. We quickly realize we were missing quite a bit that we used to have but nothing that couldn't be eventually replaced. We did buy a new air mattress and we were ready to go.  So Friday after worked we headed out. Of course, we didn't get there until after dark and luckily J and H had set up our tent for us.  After a snack of smores, and much laughter and talking we headed to bed. 

The next morning we were able to look around the beautiful campsite.  I found this lovely sign and of course had to take a picture of it.

 

Eventually the rest of the campers woke up and breakfast was soon on the stove.  As J and myself weren't really cooking we took pictures. Him on the nice camera and he and his wife have and I using my camera phone.

 Later after breakfast and during our first card games, the tripod came out and photos were taken.

 This is my dear friend H and she will hopefully forgive me for posting this picture here and on facebook but I think they grabbed some of me that look similar. By the way both H and I are addicted to the Mexican cokes and seemed to really enjoy them on our trip.

 Now let's talk about P and I's tent.  Does it look small? It is very small, we barely fit and unfortunately our new air mattress didn't fit and after several hours of trying to sleep on a little padding my poor back had enough Friday night so I finished the night in the passenger seat of the van.

 So that meant while J and H when out exploring the different beautiful waterfalls etc. P and I headed into town to correct the error.  Based on earlier advice from our wonderful cousin, we didn't exchange the air mattress, we got a bigger tent. After we return from town. J and P took down our old tent and packed it away.

 Then they set up our much bigger beautiful tent.  We can actually stand up in the tent and not step on the other person when heading out to the outhouse in the middle of the night. The new air mattress fit perfectly and was enjoyed the rest of the weekend, Including a wonderful Sunday afternoon nap!

 

As you can see from pictures above and that the sign talks about Ponderosa  pine trees, the campsite is full of beautiful pine trees that were planted almost 100 years ago.  That meant that everything was covered with pine needles and pine cones.  I took a few pictures of them but this is the best one.  

 Saturday night after the tent was up and dinner was cooked by H and myself. (Yes, I can cook but as my job was more cornbread in the dutch oven and dump cake in the dutch oven - it was really baking and yes it was all gluten free!) We played more cards by falling light and then by lantern.  It was a lot of fun.

J and H

P and Me

 The next morning after J left to head back to city for church, H and I took a walk to keep warm. It was mostly a sunny day but cold and windy. We kept the fire going all day.  We found this wild looking stump on our walk.

After lunch, the three of us went on a drive while waiting for J to make it back. We took the scenic byway up the canyon. We found this great outlook to take a few pictures. It was so cold and windy.

 We drove up a little further and found snow.  It is about 8000 feet and all the snow was covering in red dirt.  It was very pretty but cold. So we headed back to the campground for a nap.

 We went out to take pictures after our nap and J's return.  J and H had found a waterfall and bridge to take couple photos at the previous day so off we went.  It was so beautiful and green. Still quite cold but nice.  It started to rain as we left this area.

 P and I head back to camp first and started to set up a protected area but J and H were quickly there and between all four of us we got a little rain break built. Then we set up for dinner. J and P did most of the cooking.  It turned out really well. J cooked corn in the fire and we had bratwurst with potatoes, carrots and onions on the stove instead of tin foil dinner style.  It was perfect meal for the evening. J finished it up by toasting marshmallows for himself, me and P as H isn't a fan of marshmallows. It was so awesome to have a gluten free smore.  Need to go camping to make more of those. They just taste better out in the woods.

 Here is the corn in the fire for dinner.  Yummy!

 This morning we awoke to a winter wonderland.  I have to say that I wasn't expected 4 inches of snow in May but it is Utah and it is ALWAYS a possibility.

 We did have a little incident of the tent bowing in with snow at one part of the morning but the tent did great and stayed together and we stayed nice and dry inside.  It was hard to leave the warmth of the tent but it was too pretty to stay inside.

 All the pine needles and pine cones were covered in snow.

 Here is just a little of the snow that we knocked of the roof of the tent.  P had to knock the roof clear about 5 times before we packed up.

 The trees were full of snow and the snow was quite dense and so when the snow came off the trees it was like being hit by a snowball.  Also pine cones sometimes came with the snow!

 There was about 4 inches of snow on the railing and by joint agreement we decided that our camping trip was at an end and time to pack up and head home. 

 Bye campground. See you when it warms up a little more!  I want to come here again. It was a really nice site. It was so nice to get away from everything. There was no cellphone coverage and the campground only had 16 sites so not too many people.  It was a great time to recharge.

So this was our first journey back into camping and we are already planning more trips. We will also be planning to join P's family (extended) as scheduling permits.  But now it is time to knit as I haven't knit in over a week due to work and the camping trip.   This is did get me ready for the summer and we have a lot of great plans and trips planned. More photos from this trip are coming after P uploads his photos from the camera.