State Forest State Park with Jack

We had originally planned two nights in the park, Sunday and Monday, but we received an email listing the weekend activities, and were able to get a campsite for Saturday night. Jack is 8 years old, and has never been camping before.

We left Saturday about 10 AM, and got to the campsite about noon. The bat event was scheduled at 1 PM, but by the time we had lunch, we got there about 1:08, and saw no group. We asked people who had come down the trail if they had seen a ranger, and they said that they had not, so we drove to Craigs campground to check it out. This campground is for tents and maybe small RVs. On the way down we saw a ranger, who told us that the bat walk was going on, but by that time we were too late to catch up. Jack wanted to put his feet in a mountain stream, so we stopped at Agnes Creek. Jack was surprised at how cold the water was, but spent several minutes in it anyway. ;-)

The big excitement for the day was the moose that we saw grazing; we did get some pictures on our phones. We also saw deer, a pika, a turkey vulture, and chipmunks.

We spent some time at the campground, and then headed to the Moose visitor center. There was an animal quiz scheduled, and Abby was happy to have some customers. There were 10 questions, and Jack got all 10 questions right! Sandi and I did well, but not that well. We all won a postcard, and Jack got a sticker and some candy. Jack was wearing his Junior Ranger vest; the employees were very taken by the vest, resolving to get some for their own shop. We walked a bit on the Gould trail, and worked on the Junior Ranger quiz with Jack. We headed back to the camper for dinner; it started to rain about the end of dinner. There was a night sky talk scheduled, so we played the long shot and drove to where the talk was to be. The rain got heavier and heavier, and we were told that the talk was canceled, which was not a surprise.

We were somewhat disappointed to make only one of the activities scheduled that day, but were happy to be in the park.

Sunday we drove into Walden for a 1 PM mass, with an African priest from Granby. We bought some cat food, and had lunch in our camper. We headed over to the museum, a good local museum, with a little of everything, donated by the locals. It continued to rain on and off. Richard did a little fishing. The sunset was beautiful, with light on the mountains.

Monday was sunny and clear. We went on a hike on the Canadian trail. Jack kept stopping to look at everything, or put his stick into the puddles. so it was more of a nature hike. We decided to drive back to Walden, to get gas and buy lunch. We had burgers at the Stockman Bar; they have a large patio area. The kitchen is a food trailer. We chatted with the owner; she is descended from some of the very early settlers, who drove cattle into North Park.

 

We had a smoky campfire, due to the wet wood, but were able make some Smores. A deer wandered through the campsite.

We drove home Tuesday morning.