More Toddler Camping - 08.24-25.12

Another last minute decision to make the most of time off and go camping. Packing for camping with Mirabelle always seems not worth it as we struggle to wrangle her and gear to pack in the morning of a trip. This usually has Jennifer second guessing our decision to go, and also has us leaving later than I'd prefer. Not to mention forgetting some things. (more on that later)

The idea was to drive up and secure a site at Tinkham campground off I90, then take a hike up to Denny Slide while Mirabelle takes her nap. Securing a site was not a problem and we soon took the short drive over to Denny Creek Trail Head for out hike.

Mirabelle is at an age where she does not want to be cooped up in the pack for a trip and enjoys doing some of the hiking on her own. (Although she is not at an age where she can keep from getting tuckered out pretty quickly.) She wanted out of the pack early and proceeded to inspect every rock leave and hole near the trail. She didn't want to sleep in the pack or the Ergo that we brought along as well. So we all soldiered on to the slide.

It was surprising to see so many people there early on a Friday afternoon. She got good and tuckered out there, and we continued up to Keekwulee Falls while she napped in the Ergo until we got back down to the slide. She did a fair amount of the hiking back to the car and then we headed back to camp where we needed to borrow a lighter to start our stove to make dinner.

After dinner we headed to the river where Mirabelle just had to get in and wade in the South Fork.

As you can tell from the jackets, the air was not warm.

After a breakfast of fresh picked red huckleberry oatmeal, we headed to Twin Falls State Park to get in another hike. Unfortunately, all the hiking Mirabelle did the previous day left her a little too tired to accomplish that hike and we cut the hike short just after the switchbacks leading closer to the falls.

Speedy little hiker

Deception Pass - 08.02-.3.12

Jennifer and I both had two days off in a row. So we packed up and headed to Deception Pass for a night of car camping with Mirabelle. It has been years since we have been there. (It seems like we used to go at least once a year, but I don't remember the last time we were there.) I don't know if it exploded in popularity, or we used to visit during the off season, but we were surprised by the amount of people there. We were fortunate to get one of the last three Cranberry Lake camp sites still available on a Thursday evening.

We spent some time on West Beach before hiking up to the bridge in an effort to get Mirabelle to sleep in the ergo. I forgot just how many old growth trees there are up there. Plenty of Douglas Fir with diameters over a meter reaching fairly high into the sky. Some more interesting versions nearer the cliffs and beaches as well. We reached the bridge just as Mirabelle awoke. (Traffic noise?) We proceeding to head toward Pass Island while Mirabelle watched the water in the pass with amazement. We did a u-turn and came back following the trail we took to the bridge, now letting Mirabelle walk the safer sections.

We took a detour to North Beach and hung out a while, enjoying the many different beautiful rocks on the beach before heading back to West Beach where our car was parked.

We walked around a bit further before opting to eat dinner at one of the many picnic tables near Cranberry Lake. Mirabelle attacked a plum in the van so we gave it to her for dinner. She proceeded to make a mess of everything while we ate. Afterward, we went to the beach to watch the sunset. Mirabelle, not having had a sufficient nap went bonkers on the beach running around and falling in the sand. Then she played with the girls from a family from BC before we settled on a log to watch the sunset. It proved too long a day for Mirabelle and we retired to our campsite before the sun hit the horizon. Mirabelle didn't take too long to fall asleep and then we all slept until morning.

After a slow wake up, we went to The Bridge Cafe for breakfast. Then it was over to Rosario Beach to check out the tide pools. They unfortunately have really degraded due to human trampling. They now have ropes that you should follow to enjoy the tidal pools. We saw a few things, but the footing was not so good for Mirabelle and we returned to the beach to enjoy the fabulous rocks and skip some stones. Then we took a brief hike up Rosario Head to take in the views. We wanted to leave so we could time Mirabelle's nap with the return trip, so we had lunch and headed back done I5.

It was a fun trip, and Mirabelle seems to like camping. So hopefully we'll get out a few more times at least before this winter.