Shenandoah Camping

Memorial Day Weekend Camping 2009

Thursday afternoon we loaded up the Suburban and headed to the Shenandoah Mountains. We decided to be more adventurous this year and left on Thursday.

With it being a Thursday the traffic was a lot lighter and so the drive went by a lot a faster. Once we got to our campground Big Meadows in the Shenandoah National Park we set up camp. The boys were a big help to Ryan in getting everything set up. I wasn't much help since I had had mouth surgery earlier in day.

Friday morning we woke up and had breakfast in the tent trailer. We made yummy crepes! Can't say we've ever had those for breakfast while camping. After breakfast we went on a hike to Dark Hollow falls. It's one of our boys favorite hikes in the park and is a must to do every year.

This year we dared the older boys to get into the water at the bottom of the waterfall. I brought a pair of flip flops for each of the boys to change into. Matthew & Christopher got into the water first. Brr it was super cold. We ended up losing one of Christopher's flip flops over the edge. We ended up finding it down river a bit.

On our hike back out, we stopped in one spot and let the boys slide down the rocks in the river into a pond pool. The boys had fun sliding down. They had to be careful though because getting back up the rocks were slippery and steep. I ended up sliding down one of the rocks getting over to where the boys were sliding. I had our expensive camera in my hand and ended up doing all I could to protect it from getting wet. Thankfully I was successful!

This particular waterfall hike is about a mile and a half round trip. So not to long of a hike for the little ones. However it is all down hill in a rather steep incline until you get down to the waterfall. The boys always hurry down and are good hikers climbing back up. This year we let Tommy walk the whole way. He did rather well getting down and keeping up with his older brothers. However climbing back up was a little different story. He was wanting to be mister independent and do the hike all by himself, with no help. However, he was walking at a rather slow pace. He kept stopping every inch to admire this or that but particularly the bugs. So I decided to work that to my advantage. I would walk ahead and call to Tommy, "Oh, I found another bug, hurry Thomas come see!" He would run as fast as he could, bend down and get a close look at the bug. He had no fear of them and often ended up touching them.

Friday night we enjoyed roasting marshmallows and making smores especially Reese's Peanut Butter smores over the campfire.

Saturday we enjoyed a big breakfast at the campground with a bunch of friends. After breakfast a bunch of us went on hike to a different waterfall.

We have never done this hike before. It was a pretty hike through the trees to the waterfall. It is a much longer hike but a more gradual incline than Dark Hollows. The trail was much further away from the river too which was nice because the kids could run up ahead with their friends.

We enjoyed our evening walks/scooter rides down to the meadow to see the wildlife. Followed by our ice cream popsicles from the camp store.

The kids love to chase the deer in the Big Meadow.

The boys also enjoyed riding their scooters throughout the campground.



It wouldn't be camping without getting dirty and Tommy seem to have no problem with this. He enjoyed playing in the dirt with the big trucks.

Joshua had fun running around with his friend Clara. They were so cute, laughing and giggling together.

We had a great time camping with some of our closest friends here in Virginia.

But most importantly we enjoyed another great year of camping as a family in Shenandoah National Park.

We did end up taking down camp Sunday night, after Christopher burned his hand pretty good with a roasting skewer, he had left in the fire pit. By the time we broke camp, it was pitch black. The boys and I slept all the way home.