It was not a weekend. It was a total of 12 hours.
We started off Thursday evening eating at The Hub in Tacoma (sister to the Harmon) and left for the Cascades super late. We packed the car and left at 7 p.m. We knew we were rushing it, but thought we would have plenty of time to set up camp.
Scott told us to go to this amazing campsite off a forest service road near Crystal Mountain and we decided to try it. That was the wrong decision, considering we were in my little Ford Focus. It was like driving on chunks of razor sharp rocks. We drove 1/2 hour up this road of chunks and turned around before we even reached the top. We were almost there, but Paolo was having heat flashes and practically hyperventilating.
So, it took us 1/2 hour to drive down. We had no camping spot, and it was dark.
I had an idea! We could drive to the camp site that was 1/2 mile down the road where we saw quite a few tents and RVs and pitch the tent using the headlights. Paolo refused and said, "There is a hotel up the road that we can stay at. It will be to hard to put the tent up in the dark."
We drove to Alta and they had no vacancies.
I asked the receptionist at Alta if the campsites down the road would allow us to stay without a park pass. She said we were supposed to have one, but the ticket fee was the same price as the park pass. We didn't really have a choice anyway.
We drove down the road where we thought Buck Creek Camping Resort was and we got lost. First we ended up at a Christian Camp and then we were next to an abandoned airstrip. We drove a little ways trying to get back on the highway, but no luck. It was pitch black. We saw a few campfires near the airstrip and decided to try and set up camp there.
We put the tent up in 5 minutes and got all of our stuff inside. I packed a beer for each of us to cheer and then we were off to sleep after minutes of hearing Paolo complain about how hard the ground was. Here we are inside the tent:
At 11:30 p.m. the neighing, bucking, and braying began. Paolo was exhausted and I was a little weirded out.
"Paolo, there are horses right outside our tent!" I said.
Paolo responded, "What?!"
No joke, we pitched our tent at a horse-people campground. The horses neighed and bucked all night and we slept from 1 a.m. - 5 a.m. I don't know what Paolo had to complain about. Here are our horse neighbors:
And here we are before packing up:
5 comments:
Hahaha. I can't believe you guys!
If you want good camping suggestions, might I mention a little blog called Caviar & Campfires? Driving up a forest service road can be super rough, and maybe not the greatest suggestion for novices? (No offense).
Dude, I know exactly where you guys were. Rather than turn left to go to the airstrip, you guys stopped at the horse campground. The sites around that airstrip actually makes up Buck Creek campground. I camped there just a few weeks ago. HA!
By the way that airstrip is actually active
They prefer to be called Centaurs.
@Faceplant Yeah, that was my biggest concern! Can you imagine waking up to a plane landing 100 feet away? We were really that close.
@Chris They sounded like Centaurs.
Mom said...
Now it's time for fun camping! air mattress, running water, easy hike, campfire, smores, great family and/or friends and wine! So fun!!
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