Camping!

We have discovered the joy of Family Camping. Despite backpacking for much of my adult life, I feel like a newbie when it comes to car camping. Especially with kids. Angelina loves camping. LOVES it. She is so excited to help Papa set up the tent and she asks to go all the time. We’ve been trying to make use of our State Parks Pass, so this weekend we checked out Colorado Bend State Park.

It took us 3.5 hours on a Friday night to get there, no short trek. The last 25 miles we drove into the sunset in the middle of nowhere, with spectacular views. The final 10 miles in the dark on a gravel path. It all felt so isolated, until we made it to the campground bustling with people. A nice area for camping near the Colorado River, but camping in Texas is so different from the west or the northeast. I guess it’s due to fewer trees, as when I’ve been car camping elsewhere, the campsites tend to be spaced out a bit with lots of trees in between. Here it’s like a big field with the occasional tree. No real privacy. Fortunately when you have kids, that can be a good thing.


We hiked to Gorman Falls (previously open only by tour guide, now anyone can hike it). An easy path until the very end when you have to scamper down very steep rocks. With two kids. It was well worth it, as the falls were stunning and so different than anything I’d seen in Texas:deep green moss covering rocks is not a common sight in this arid land.



When we got back to the campground, we discovered something most appealing: two families of kids had set up two spaces over from us. Angelina has never met a kid with whom she didn’t want to play. So in a matter of minutes she wandered over, introduced herself, and asked if she could join the 2 6 year old girls, 3 yr old girl and 3 yr old boy.





Later we took what we thought was a short walk to the end of the campground but turned into a 1.5 mile walk (that’s what happens when you don’t look at the map closely) to a spring-fed pool. Whoa! This was amazing. The pictures should tell it all.