Camping at Pokagon State Park

Last week we went camping in Pokagon State Park in the northeastern corner of Indiana. We had never been there before so it was an adventure for us. It turned out to be well worth the long drive to get there.

We hiked through marsh (seen here) and I identified flowers I'd never seen before in person. For example, notice the water lily:

We also went to their beach. Although the weather and the water were a little cold that day, you can see that my kids had fun. Here's my 6yo playing in the sand:

But of course, the best part is always the camping. We'd reserved our campsite online using only a basic map so we weren't sure what we were in for. Generally, we had a good site. It was the middle of the week so the campground wasn't terribly busy and the people who were there tended to be families with kids like us. We were within close walking distance of the facilities that included flush toilets and showers (a new luxury in our family's camping experience). We were also close to the camp playground so that the boys could go play on the playground while we fixed dinner. They were far enough to be out of our hair, but close enough that we could still see them and wave them over when dinner was ready. Each day was rounded out by the obligatory campfire and smores. Here's my 12yo playing guitar one evening at the fire ring:

Camping Season 2008 is now open

As I mentioned in my last post, I did ignore the media all weekend. That was mostly because it was our annual First-Weekend-in-May camping trip which is our family's official start to the camping season. The weather this year was not as nice as last year. Friday we had to contend with rain and storms and then Saturday night it got down into the 40's and was a little on the chilly side. But that didn't deter us. We love camping and can't wait for the first annual trip. We always start the season off at McCormick's Creek State Park in the same campsite every year. It is a family tradition. Here is the creek from which the park gets its name:

As I mentioned, it was rainy and stormy Friday night when we set up camp, so we had to hang up a tarp to protect our table. It was only a little miserable and we made the best of a trying situation.

The rain did stop, however, and Saturday was a nice and sunny day. We went on several different hikes. (Here are my three sons on one of our hikes.)

And we spent time playing around the campsite.

It got pretty cold Saturday night so we huddled around the campfire. Here I am sitting by the fire. I was bundled up in a t-shirt, sweatshirt, a hoodie, and a fleece jacket with a winter coat draped over my legs and gloves on my hands. Dressing in layers actually does work.

Saturday morning we warmed up by the fire as we made breakfast.

I was thrilled that the guys made breakfast. Here's my 16 year old making biscuits in our dutch oven.

In general a good time was had by all. In my gardening blog I have created a companion post where I will share all the wildflowers that I identified this trip. And if you are a wildflower fan, this weekend was incredible. Everything seemed to be in bloom!

We are excited about camping again and are already planning our next camping trip for some time in June.

"October's poplars are flaming torches lighting the way to winter" - Nova Bair

The woods in October in Indiana, I think, are at their best. The leaves whose greens blend together in summer, become defined in shades of gold, orange, red, yellow, brown. With each passing breeze a few stray leaves begin their slow glide to the ground. Acorns litter the ground, waiting for the wildlife to gather them up.

Last week we had Fall Break at school so we decided to take one last camping trip before the weather turns too cold. This time we went to Yellowwood State Forest in southern Indiana. Camping in October is so different from camping in May or June or July. We dressed in layers, huddling around the campfire at night out of necessity. Temperature ratings on sleeping bags were put to the test this time. And when we woke in the morning, our breath was visible until the sun warmed us up again. Instead of cold drinks and hot dogs, this time around we prefered beef stew for dinner and oatmeal with hot chocolate for breakfast.

As much as I love camping and hiking in the early summer and identifying spring wildflowers, I have to admit that I really love autumn camping too. There is nothing like a scary ghost story told while huddled for warmth around a campfire in October.

Before I go I want to show you the view of the lake on Saturday morning as the sun rose behind the trees before the morning fog had burned off. A more beautiful sight I cannot imagine...

Wildflowers in the Smokies

Different people like different activities when they go out in nature. My "thing" is identifying wildflowers. I could spend hours in the woods looking for flowers to identify. On our recent trip the the Smokies, I took along my camera to capture the flowers' images. I haven't identified all of them (yet), but I thought I'd share with you the ones I am pretty sure I've identified correctly.

This first one is Crimson Bee Balm (also known as Oswego Tea) which is prolific in the park. The bright red jumps out at you from all that green.



This next one is a little blurry (my camera isn't great), but it is a decent picture of what I think is Turk's-cap Lilies. The color was very distinctive and that, along with the curled-up shape, made it fairly easy to identify.



This striking blue flower jumped out at me. At first I thought some of the petals had been ripped off by an animal or another hiker, but I discovered that this flower actually only has two petals. What was even more bizarre was that this flower, introduced to America from Asia, has blooms that only bloom for one day. This one happened to bloom on the same day I took my hike. It's called the Asiatic Dayflower.



Finally, this is a photo of a Thimbleweed. Although the photo is a little blurry around the flower head due to the glare of the sun, I was able to identify it in person and am fairly certain about its name. The flower seemed to shoot right up out of the foliage which was on the ground.



I have more pictures I'll share in a later post. I've probably given enough for now. My husband has posted two different posts about our vacation on his blog at A View from the Crossroads. Go there to check out a picture from their whitewater rafting trip.

Pictures from Shades State Park

Here are some pictures my son took on our hike yesterday.


Here is Big J, myself, and our two younger sons at the bottom of a flight of steps leading down into a canyon at a place called Devil's Punchbowl.


This is me trying to identify one of the few wildflowers I found.


Here are my youngest two sons (ages 10 and 5) in the bottom of the gorge at Devil's Punchbowl. This gives you an idea of the scale showing the size of this place.


The payoff for all those stairs: a beautiful waterfall view.

Where to camp and hike?

Ms. Kitty pointed out that I didn't mention where exactly we went on our trip. At first I kept it general because I didn't want any weirdos tracking us down. ;-) But then these parks are big and I don't post until we're home anyway so what does it hurt, huh?

Last weekend we went to McCormick's Creek State Park in southwestern Indiana. We've gone to this particular park for years, and I have to admit we are partial to it. We've been so much that we know all the trails and where they lead. We know which trails we prefer and even which campsites we prefer. However, it occurs to us that maybe we need to branch out a little bit and try some new places. We have purchased an annual entrance pass for all of the state parks so we thought we'd travel around and try out some other spots this summer.

A few weeks ago we drove up to northern Indiana to Prophetstown State Park and nearby Battle Ground, Indiana (site of the Battle of Tippecanoe). Prophetstown State Park has a campground with 110 sites and I'm trying to talk the rest of the family into trying it out. But the day we were there it was really windy and that land up there is flat as a pancake. We're used to southern Indiana where there are lots of rolling hills. But way back in the ice age the glaciers came about as far as Indianapolis and then stopped. So northern Indiana got flattened like a cotton shirt with an iron. (That was just a little bit of geographical info for you non-Hoosiers out there.) Anyway, I think it is cool to see flat land with prairie grass. It's VERY different from what we're used to. The campground there is new, there are only small saplings (if there are any trees at all) and it just feels like it is one big field. Big J and Little J weren't impressed.

Today we went out for a hike. We headed up to Shades State Park in western Indiana. We went there because Little J went there a couple of years ago with his Boy Scout troop and remembered one particular trail that he just loved. We discovered it today. Big J and Little J loved it. I, however, did not. I wouldn't be opposed to going camping there, but I didn't care for the trails. If we do camp there, I will probably stay back at the campsite and read or something. There are lots of very steep ravines where wooden stairs have been built. It is a lot of up and down some very long flights of stairs. And the foliage is so dense that there were very few wildflowers which is my main reason for hiking. All of that glute exercise and no wildflower sitings to show for it.

We did get some nice pictures though. I will post some tomorrow after church.

To help you cope with everyday life

This photo was taken by my oldest son last weekend on our hiking/camping trip. Doesn't it just beg you to go out into the woods? I just love this photo.

Here are a couple more shots from the same trip:



A waterfall as seen from the cliff top above. What a vantage point, huh?



An old abandoned stone quarry in the middle of the woods.



Setting up camp back at the campsite. Car camping with three kids is a big production. I can't wait to have another free weekend and go back.

Hiking with kids

We just got home from our annual family spring camping trip. I have several blog posts bumping around in my head now. I thought I'd start out by sharing our hiking adventures with our kids. Maybe this will help some other parents out there who may be planning summer outings with their own kids.

My husband and I have always enjoyed hiking and have taken our kids along since they were small. But I have to admit that kids can get bored with hiking easier than adults do. If you are a parent who has tried to take kids hiking, you may remember getting about halfway into the hike when the whining begins. Are we almost done? Will you carry me? I'm bored. I'm hot. There are too many bugs. My feet hurt.

I have found that the best way to avoid these situations is to plan your hikes with your kids in mind. Rather than just going out hiking and soaking in nature (which is often perfect for adults), go out with a purpose in mind. Set a goal for the trip and get the kids involved. Not only will they not complain, but they'll get just as excited as you (or maybe even more so!).

This weekend we made three small hikes. Saturday morning was our least structured hike. We picked a trail that was about 1 mile long. Having done this before, I know that E (10yo) loves identifying trees. I love to identify wildflowers. Big J, Little J (15yo), and D (5yo) all love just looking around and seeing what they can see. Little J is good at teaching D things that he has learned through Boy Scouts. Anyway, for our first hike, we just took a little time to do our own things all within the same area of the trail. I was thrilled to find several new wildflowers this year and correctly identify them. Meanwhile, E was learning to distinguish different kinds of oaks. D just enjoyed finding sticks or rocks on the trail and throwing them into the undergrowth.

After a lunch break and a trip to the park's nature center, we were ready for our first planned hike. (I can't take full credit for these ideas. They actually came from the Cub Scout How-To book for leaders. I just adapted them for my family.) Anyway, before we left home, I printed out sheets for our ABC Scavenger Hunt. On each sheet I printed out each letter of the alphabet. I made a few copies so we'd have plenty. We split into two teams: Me and E on one team and Big J, Little J, and D on the other team. When we got to the trail head we checked our watches and agreed to meet back at that spot in one hour. Then we took off. On our hike we had to find one sight, sound, or smell for every letter of the alphabet. Everyone had fun with that one - even D, who can't read yet, loved helping his dad and big brother. We only found 20 items while the guys got 26 (although I think they cheated by choosing "zipper" from Little J's shorts for Z and they found an insect they named "Quinton" for Q).

This morning after breakfast we had our second scavenger hunt. Again, I printed up a few copies of a Nature Scavenger Hunt list. The list included items we might find on a hike such as an anthill, a maple leaf, an animal track, a spider web, etc. We split into different teams this time. This time Little J and D came with me while E went with his dad. We went to a different trailhead this time and agreed to meet back there in an hour. This was a lot of fun. D was disappointed that he couldn't find the raccoon that he'd been looking for. But we had lots of fun finding the other items.

A cool side effect of these hikes is that my kids are really learning a lot about nature. My 10yo can correctly identify 2-3 different kinds of trees by looking at their leaves. D, who is only 5, can correctly identify deer tracks and anthills and woodpecker holes, just to name a few. Even Little J (who considers himself an outdoor expert since he camps out with the Boy Scouts so much) learned something new when I showed him wild garlic on the trail today. He'd never seen it before.

What a great way to spend time with your family!