Category Archives: Camping

Camping, Hiking, National Forest, National Memorial

The Black Hills of South Dakota

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Thankfully the rest of our trip was not as bumpy as the first part.

Not smooth but definitely not crazy.

We left the Badlands and promptly needed to find somewhere to dump our black tanks. We were dry camping (no water in tanks) but using the bathroom when needed and the last spot had no other bathroom.

Seven people for three days is apparently the max with no other bathroom choice.

And we needed a new tongue jack.

Thankfully we were able to find a place for both of those before heading into the Black Hills.

We stayed at a National Forest Campground and it was beautiful!

And most importantly had a bathroom (just a vault toilet, most places did not have water on).

Tons of wildlife, a lake, and near these guys…

I did not even have to bribe them to get these smiles!

They were surprisingly excited about seeing Mount Rushmore!

I quickly realized that this was a one stop place though. We did everything including watching all the movies on the making of (my daughters favorite part, they loved feeling like they were in a theater, something I avoid doing with them normally) in one visit.

So the next day we did the Little Devil’s Tower hike in Custer State Park.

I thought my kids would like the possible climbing part and foolishly thought I could do “the easy part” and wait for them.

Instead I tried to kill myself to get pictures of the beautiful views.

I stopped to “enjoy” the view often because I could not breathe though.

It started going uphill and then it ended in a scramble to the top.

And I did it because I wanted the shot!

I will forgive all the rest of my family for saying they were not really sore the next day when I could not use my arms or legs without groaning in pain.

This kid in the above pic was the worst, flew up like it was no problem.

But then on the way back down to the vehicle he asked if he could go ahead, I confirmed that he knew the way, reminded myself that he is growing up and said okay stay within hearing.

I did not think much more of it until we were almost back to the vehicle and he runs up from BEHIND us…

I thought he was in the front.

He said he took a wrong turn and had to run to catch up!

Never going to trust the whole he is getting older thing again.

Lies!

He will hold my hand from now on.

Camping

Whirlwind trip west

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We spent a week with family in MN and then started our journey west, which was promptly paused 1hr in when our hubs broke off our tire (we never did find the tire).

After about 6hrs of searching for parts and the tire (and a lot of work on my husbands part), we got back on the road.

And hit a deer.

I was asleep and Nick had been having me watch videos on trailer sway so I thought this was it, we were flipping over.

Thankfully, although startling it did not damage anything.

We made it to our site and proceeded to wait for the wind to die down enough to finish our drive to the badlands.

Because of the wind we got to the boondocking spot after dark, which is something I really try to avoid.

This was even more intense because of the high winds and drop offs.

I had no clue where to go and we basically just chose the first flat spot and said this is fine.

Unfortunately I did not plan for the wind and it shook us all night. Since the wind was going to get worse the next day Nick wanted to turn the RV to compensate for it so we moved to a better spot the next morning.

And our tongue jack broke.

Thankfully I married a fixer.

Ha

Nick insisted on a spot with no steep drop offs and I am super thankful.

The next day our youngest thought it was funny to let the wind almost push her off and also let go of her jacket which was instantly gone.

I grabbed her and put her in the safety of the car and thankfully her jacket caught one of the only trees around…

Because of the high wind the boys decided to sleep in the rv and not try to set up their tent so we had a full house!

All that drama maybe made me appreciate the beautiful views all the more.

Thankfully the rest of our trip was a bit less eventful 😉

Camping, Hiking

Hawthorn bluff Campground ~Oologah Lake

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After spending the week at Washington Irving I decided we should take advantage of already being packed and go to another campground for the weekend 😉 I am sure Nick loves all my ideas like this.

There was actually someone in our spot when we got there but thankfully we talked and they realized they were there on the wrong date.

This site was right next to the water which was beautiful but also it was right next to this cliff which was a bit stressful. ha

It made for beautiful sunrises though.

He wanted me to try his “way down” but I decided against it.

I realized I was not in any pictures from the week so I set my camera on a rock and fixed that while watching the sunrise with the boys.

It really was an amazing view.

The sites are a nice size as well.

There is a nature trail near the campground that is around a mile long for the long loop.

It had beautiful views of the lake!

The trail was also pretty wide so this is the perfect trail for summer hikes to me. I like them to be open to a breeze and not be narrow, it helps with pests not being as bad.

Next we took the Gazebo Trail to the swimming beach, I did not know it went to it so only the boys were ready to swim.

Nick took the girls back so they could get dressed and drove over to meet us.

After the amazing beach we had been at all week this was a bit disappointing but the kids enjoyed cooling off.

We also went to the Rogers County Fair, The Will Rogers Museum, and the Will Rogers Birthplace Ranch, but I will do a separate post about those so this one is not too long.

I loved to sit here and watch the water.

And make sure my kids did not fall off the cliff.

Need to work on cliff safety with my youngest three.

I made myself get up to watch the full sunrise the next day.

It was a beautiful spot for a weekend.

I am even thinking of staying here for a week like we did at Washington Irving. Maybe a little farther away from the cliff though…