Who's Tent Campin': July 2010

[renodesertfox]

Who's tent Campin' during the month of July 2010. If you have plans and would like to share please post your tent camping plans for July 2010 here, thanks!

[Smokey Mtn. Camper]

Yup...we are planning on a 3-4 nighter at Cades Cove in the Smokies. Havent picked the exact date yet but have been looking at the weekend after the 4th. I have a Snow White German Shepard thats likes to camp as much as we do and we always take him to one camp a year and this will be his turn. The kids will ride bikes and I will take my oldest horseback riding but other than that, we will just him (his name is Smokey) get a look at a few bears, coyotes, deer, wild turkeys while we enjoy camping. It will be just another chapter in our camping book of memories.

Cant wait to see where others are camping.

[renodesertfox]

July 11 through 18 we are headed for Yosemite Creek Primitive Campground in Yosemite National Park. Actually we'll depart on the 10th(Saturday), spending the night in a cheap motel near Mono Lake. Then up the Tioga Pass Road and into Yosemite. It's our major campout, we try to do a major campout(a week or more) every six months and this year it's Yosemite. There's 52 sites, non-reserveable for tents only. The dirt road in from the turn-off is 4 1/2 miles rough old pavement. It's the only road section within the park that is still part of the original road made in the late 1800s. The waterfalls this year will be fantastic because of all the snow!

[Kindlings]

My wife, 4yo daughter and I are hoping to get up to the PA Grand Canyon - Wellsboro, PA. Along the bottom of the canyon is a wonderful bike trail.

[renodesertfox]

July 17 thru July 25th we are headed to Lassen Volcanic NP in northern California. Yosemite is too crowded! Leaving in 4 days!:D:D

[richardvg03]

Family Camping trip in the Rocky Mountain National Park the last week of July!

[scott37300]

We are going to Yellowstone National Park the end of July. Taking my girlfriend and her 3 daughters who have never camped before. The girls are excited and like hiking at the state parks around here so they shouldn't be a problem but we'll have to see how their mom likes sleeping in a tent! Have a feeling it will be an experience.

Going to stop at Mt. Rushmore and drive threw the badlands and black hills on the way out there. And also the Tettons while we are there.

Will take lots of pics and post them when we get back.

Scott

[dancing2some]

Just got back from a weekend trip at Frenchman Lake, north of Chilcoot,CA. Fishing was better over Memorial weekend, but had fun just the same. We had to put up with a few more slob campers now that summer is in full swing, like the moron next to us that felt the need to be tormenting the local wildlife, and his campmates, with his airsoft pellet guns, but we attached a tarp wall along one side of the easy up, and that offered plenty of privacy.
Got home sunday and made reservations for our next trip, Portola and Lake Davis for the 23rd. Fishing reports indicate the damselfly nymphs are just getting going, so hoping to find some fabulous fly fishing for big rainbows!

[nearlywild]

We're going to Valdez again at the end of the month. My parents are coming for a visit, so we're going down there to do some halibut fishing. Originally, we were going to stay in a hotel because dad doesn't like camping but after I told him the cheapest room I could find was $150 a night he agreed to go camping. Something interesting I found out. I never knew why, when we were growing up, my parents would never take us camping. It turns out that after my dad got of the Marines he said that he was never going to sleep on the ground again. So, I'm trying to make this camping trip as comfortable as possible for him.

[renodesertfox]

Pleased as punch, I am, that everyone is using the summer as a great time fer campin! Cause it is!

Leaving tomorra morning(7/17/2010) for another campout, to Lassen Volcanic NP in north central CA. We will be tent campin(is there any other way?) of course there ain't; in a more primitive cg. Water this go-'round being supplied by mother nature's Juniper Lake! We'll be gone at least 7 nights. Adios fer now!

[WVcamper]

Headin' out for our 3rd camping trip this summer w/ the kids in two weeks. Just reserved a spot last night. It will be my kids first camping experience so should be interesting to see how they take to it. I hope they enjoy it. There is a really nice lake near by so they will be able to do some swimming which they absolutley love to do. Can't wait.

[trishaz717]

2 Trips in July!

Although I usually hate to do it, I actually went camping over the July 4th weekend. Actually from 7/1-7/6. We went to Frances Slocum state park in PA. The weekend really wasn't bad -- crowd wise. I pretty much had the park to myself for Thursday & Monday and just spent the rest of the weekend with family (3 sisters and nieces & nephew live within 20 minutes of the park). We went to the pool and got sunburned, then went to watch the fireworks at Kirby Park. I ended up just spending the night on my sisters' couch as I wouldn't have gotten back to the park until after midnight.

I'm heading out again for a looong weekend this week. Up to Stokes State Park in NJ. I've never camped there before, but I took a ride up yesterday to scope it out. Seems like a very nice, quiet park with tons of trails ... including several miles of the AT. I dug out my old 35 mm camera and pulled out an old camera book and am going to try to get some real nice pictures on Sunrise Mountain and some of the other trails. I miss using my 35mm, but have not used it in a long, long time. Let's see if it's like riding a bike ...

The pix below are some from Frances Slocum.

[RebeccaG]

flat lander camping

I have always camped in California, Oregon and Tennessee mountains. So now that I am living in Texas I decided it was time to take my three year old and my husband for their first camping trip. I had a great time purchasing new gear and teaching them a few things. Low and behold, when everyone said "you are flat land camping in JUly are you crazy/"..I laughed and said I am a die hard camper chompin to get back into my hobby. It actually ended up being the hottest day in record. 97 in the shade. It was miserable, but we still had a great time and will be going back to Lake Livingston in October. Valuable lesson learned. DO not camp in southern Texas in JUne, July or Aug....although I think I might try the hill country and see if that is cooler....

[Smokey Mtn. Camper]

I absolutely LOVE camping in the mountains during June, July and August. For example...here in the southeast, we have had one of the hottest summers on record and its just mid July. The hottest part of summer is fast approaching. Last weekend, we left Knoxville and it was 92 degrees. When we went through Townsend the temp was 95 with the heat index approaching 105. It was HOT!!!! When we reached our campsite in the Smokies it was a cool 79 degrees. It was like having AC. I just count my blessings everyday that I live so close to green, lush and cool mountains.

We like it so much, we are headed to Cades Cove on Thursday for 4 more days of cool camping. This has been a fabulous summer for camping and this will be out last of the summer. Have one scheduled in October but sadly, due to some personal matters, this will bring down the curtain for our summer camping. However, I can still live vicariously through others posts about their camping trips. :D

[renodesertfox]

Back from Lassen Volcanic NP late yesterday! We tent camped at Juniper Lake, largest alpine lake in the park. The trail around the lake is 7 miles, we did that the 2nd day. The last day of snow there was recorded on June 21st and they had three feet of snow added to their 215" for the year. Winter was late arriving and Juniper Lake has 18 sites but only 5 were open because of still snow blocking the road. July 21st I used our snow-chains and tow straps to pull a stranded car out of a ditch! July 21st, yep there was still snow in places!

The road through the park, the main road thro the Park was open but at 8500' elevation there where still huge drifts along the road. Most of the hiking trails along the main road where still closed because of snow drifts. Mt. Lassen at 10,500 had still lots of snow. Nights were in the high 40s and day temps came in around 80 degrees. Juniper Lake is a nice alpine lake but it isn't stocked and we saw no big birds other than 5 mergansers on that water. Paddling too, the water was cyrstal blue but saw no fish. The 5 campsites that were open were 1/4 mile from the water. Think we are gonna buy a wheeled hauler for our 80 lb kayak. In fact, we ordered the sail and a rudder for our yak last night when we got back. We did a couple other small hikes, played Scrabble everyday, with wine and basically were lazy from the daily cross-country walkin down to the lake. The Platypus Water Filter Gravity feed system we took for cleaning the lake water was the best thing we had. The only difference between drinking lake water there and drinking tap-water here in Reno was in Reno we had ice. We took a second cooler just for storing ice for our week long stay but we didn't use any of the ice in our drinks, it was for the food storage. The Platypus water filter though did take about 8 minutes from dirty to clean water but worked like a charm!

The skeeters were terrible for Desert Rose...next year she wants to return in September or early October when those critters aren't so active! When I get the time I'll up a few photos here. But August is right around the corner and we are already planning our next adventure in two weeks.

PS: The NPS opened the other sites at Juniper Lake Yesterday too, the day we left! But that's okay, we had a great time even though it was a rough cross-country hike to the lake everyday and most days we did down and back three or four times. Went night yakin once and the night sky was just a jewel!