After a successful family camping trip last year with church, I thought this year would be a perfect time to strike out on our own for a family camping vacation. I chose Taylors Falls because there is a ton to do and it’s not that far away. I figured if it was a total failure, we could just pack up and come home.
First, there was all the planning and packing to house, feed, transport and clothe seven people.
Then it was a big production getting everything into the vehicles. We went in 2 cars because of all the bodies and equipment. There was no room to spare!
After an uneventful drive, we arrived at our first stop: Franconia Sculpture Garden. We walked around looking at all the interesting, strange and unusual art pieces in this giant sculpture park. The sky looked really ominous and we did get a little rain.
After getting freezie pops, we popped over to Wildwood RV park to check in, get our adventure passes for Wild Mountain and other activities and figure out what to do about the weather. It was drizzling so we decided to go over to Taylors Falls for a while to wait out the rain. We booked tickets for the river cruise but had about an hour and a half to spare so we drove to Wild Mountain to check out the activities. We had time for some go kart rides while we were there. The track was damp so there was a spinout but it was not crowded at all and we got lots of riding in.
Just before it was time to board the river cruise, we headed back into town. The weather had cleared up pretty well so we were optimistic about the rest of the day.
During the cruise, we got to see the geology of the region and learn a little bit about the boat and the history of the area. It was probably about a half hour longer than we would have wanted it to be since we saw the same things going down river as we did coming back up. However, it was truly beautiful and there were several good wildlife sightings including bald eagles.
After the boat ride, we headed back up to the campground. It started to rain by that time so we had to figure out how to get camp set up. We ended up throwing a large tarp over the new gazebo I got this year to extend the dry area. It worked pretty well and we just dashed back and forth with the camp supplies to get the “kitchen” area set up. Every time the rain lightened up a bit, we would scramble to get one of the tents set up. It continued to rain so we just hung under the gazebo, getting stuff set up, eating dinner made on the cookstove, talking and melting candle from the big box of freebies we picked up at a garage sale this summer.
The rain did not let up for a quite a while and we noticed our campsite was filling up with water because it had very poor drainage and a lot of hard dirt areas. Jim got the idea to dig a trench in the driveway between the car and kitchen and then the girls joined in to do a little re-engineering of the rest of site to help it drain also.
Eventually the rain subsided, we got camp a little dryer and started a campfire with s’mores.
It ended up being a big, fun, exhausting day – and only the first in this family adventure!
