Category Archives: Camping

Camping, Parks

Kansas

Leave a comment

I decided to stay in a state park near Monument Rocks Natural Landmark, I could not believe this beautiful (not flat) spot was in Kansas and was hoping to return if we liked it.

Also, stay two days to see the area.

My first mistake was not working harder to reserve a spot beforehand, so far we had zero trouble finding spots so I did not think it would be a big deal.

My second was travelling there on Thanksgiving, everything was closed, and we were all hungry because I was going to make Thanksgiving meal when we got to our spot…

We got to Lake Scott State Park and it looked super promising but then we started see the dreaded “R” for reserved on every single site.

Maybe three other families were there so we had no clue why everything said that but they had signs saying to not park in one of those spots.

We drove around for probably an hour (while hungry) trying to figure out how to get a spot.

I found their system super confusing and of course there was no one around to clarify.

We finally parked in a spot with no electric (thankfully I was not counting on the microwave to make any of the meal) and I set about trying to deep breath past the stress of the last hour and hurriedly get food cooking.

Nick was kind of done with Kansas after that.

We did everything I wanted to do in two days, in one.

It was a beautiful, interesting area though!

The Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park and Monument Rocks where so pretty to see.

There was also a pueblo at Lake Scott, the farthest east they have found one.

Super interesting.

I am glad I got to see it, just wish their system was not so confusing.

I was super thankful to head to an Oklahoma State Park the next day!

It made me grateful for our easy to use system!

Anyone know why Kansas would say they were all reserved?

Camping, History, Parks

A Fort, White Sand, and Sand burs.

Leave a comment

After Wind Cave we headed south to Fort Robinson, all of the buildings were closed but we still enjoyed walking around and reading the history of the place.

We had learned while at the Crazy Horse Monument that this is where he was killed.

This place has a lot of sad history including being a POW camp during WW2.

That being said it was a beautiful place to camp for the night and the wildlife loop was pretty.

The horses (I think they belong to the fort) surrounded our vehicle and even stuck their noses in!

There were actually a lot of trails and I would not mind going back to this area to check out more of it.

The next day we continued our journey south and stopped at Lake McConaughy.

As we got closer I realized there were a lot of campgrounds around the lake and I started panicking on picking the right one.

I ended up choosing the one where all the sand burs go to party.

Do not walk on the grass was our mantra the whole time.

Our poor dog made that mistake several times.

I was pretty sure this was the fail of the trip, it happens. They can’t all be winners.

It was windy and the sand would get in your eyes, the vault toilet was not super clean, sand burs were everywhere and on everything, and it cost more than most of our stops.

It was pretty though.

And than we went to Kansas…

Animals, Camping, History, National Forest

Crazy Horse and Wind Cave

2 Comments

After double checking that we had ALL of our children, we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial.

I was not sure how interesting it would be but it was pretty facinating!

I would totally recommend going and learning this important part of American history.

The next day we moved to Wind Cave National Park.

It was a beautiful campground for a wonderful price.

Again no water (which we expected) and only vault toilets.

Something I had not expected was the mountain lion warning on the bathroom doors and my youngest deciding that meant they were seen in the bathrooms.

She would not step one toe outside without an adult right next to her, sure that the mountain lion was lying in wait.

My twins concern was our dog.

They did not want him sleeping in the tent, never mind their brothers were in the same tent…

But even though I acted like it was no big deal, him being in the tent with them made me feel better so he was staying.

Ha

I thought the cave tour was interesting but you did not see much of the cave at all.

I finally took the plunge and washed my hair outside with water I warmed up on the stove.

It worked fine and I felt like I had earned a camping merit badge or something 😉

I bought bath wipes also from Amazon that work great when you can’t shower.

We did see a lot of animals while driving around here but no mountain lions thankfully.

Driving around in the evenings, looking for wildlife was one of my favorite parts of this trip.