Camping

We went camping! And by we I mean Mom & Dad and Dan & I. We went to Bonneville Campgrounds- a place that we would often go when I was young. The best part about this campground is that it have a hot spring too!

We set out on Friday and packed the car to the brim (my mother is a tetris master) and we drove to the camp. We got there and set up camp; tarps, tents, kitchen, food, laundry line etc and as soon as we could we headed down to the hot springs.

In earlier years we've gone the hot springs have been pretty well kept. Sadly these last few years they've seemed to deteriorated a little bit. The big pool where we all used to spend our time in is scorching hot and covered with algae. There doesn't seemed to be enough water from the river to flow into that one. There was a pool further up that had a nice mix. A water fall of hot water from the top and a stream of cold water from the river. There were also varies pools south along side the river which were nice too. The whole trip I forgot to take a picture of the hot springs. Oops... sorry.

That night we had tin foil dinners and met our new camp guests... YELLOW JACKETS. SO. MANY. OF. THEM. Luckily they were all violent and sting you to death, they just wanted our food... really bad. For that night it was a eat in the car or right in the smoke of the fire kind of dinner. Luckily (or not) it wasn't just us. It seemed that most everyone in the camp had the same problem. We were so glad when the bees went to bed around 9pm and enjoyed our fire and some s'mores.

We went to our tent that night to find our air mattress mostly flat. We tried to use our pump again but it was mostly dead too. We were pretty sure there must be a hole in the mattress because during most of the night we slept on the ground. It wasn't as bad as I thought it might be but definitely not the most comfortable thing. It was nice and chilly at night which was nice because the days were hot. And the stars! Holy cow, so pretty at night. They were so bright it wasn't super dark out.

Saturday our main goal (among other things) was a bee trap! We ate breakfast before most of our yellow friends got up to join us thankfully. We headed off to Red fish Lake to spend our day. On our way we stopped in Stanley and invested in some yellow jacket traps and ice. When we got to redfish we enjoyed our time looking around.

We saw some Konkanee Salmon

Then the real party started and we went down to the lake for some fun. They have tons of things to rent and to do there. First: Kayaking.

That was pretty fun and quite a work out. Dan helped me kind of get comfortable with the idea of kayaking over deep water- for some reason it freaks me out. After our kayaking adventure we decided to rent a paddle board.

 my sad attempt to get on the board haha

Fire smoke from around Haley

 And then what are the odds of running into Taylor! I haven't seen him since he got home so that was awesome to run into him and in all places- Red Fish!

A photo double photo bombed by me and a man

In case you needed a close up of our photo bomber

We got some ice cream and headed back to camp. When we got back we set up our traps for our little friends while we enjoyed the hot springs. One of the traps worked like a charm!

There were like 50+ bees in there by the time we left camp

This one didn't work as well for some reason

That night our dinner was much more peaceful and relaxing, as shown here by Dan the man.

We had some new camp neighbors who rode their motorbikes up there so naturally, my dad went over to talk to them. He invited them over for our dutch oven dessert that night. 

When we got to talking and we find out...

They're from Boise area

They live close to the same crossroads as we do

They live in the next subdivision over from us

They live ON THE SAME ROAD as us (just a subdivision over)

We drive 2 hours away to camp and end up camping next to people that live on the same street as us. Wow, how random! It was quite a funny coincidence.

The next morning we packed up, cleaned up and headed home. Then we unpacked, cleaned, did laundry and showered. It's amazing how a shower makes you feel all new again! And of course, we started out the week right by boating on Monday night at Black Canyon and getting some sonic shakes on the way home!

And for your information I did in fact scream the entire time tubing with Dan. I thought we were going to die.