Stone Mountain State Park

Friday we probably set record time packing for a family camping trip. Once you have been on several trips and are resigned to the fact that your car is indeed too small for much more than a few creature comforts, packing for tent camping becomes simple. That morning I ran to Walmart for hot dogs and other camp food, table cloth clips, and I.C.E. whistles (because I’m a sucker like that). Joe came home around 12:20 pm, and by then I had packed the kids clothes and food. I picked the kids up early from school at 1:10 while Joe pulled the gear out of the closet, and we pulled out of the driveway by 2 and made it to Stone Mountain by 4:45 pm.

The original plan was to camp at Stone Mountain State Park over Labor Day weekend and get to swim in the waterfalls, but a busted knee with six stitches bumped our trip to October. I had meticulously searched through camp sites and loops for the perfect spot, and it really was a nice site with a little more space than usual for the boys to roam around in the trees. As soon as we backed in, I kid you not, the boys let out hollers and were literally swinging around tree trunks like they were fireman poles. Their shouts seemed to be coming from all directions as they zinged about in every direction. My youngest, Wookie, stayed barefoot most the weekend despite my desperate pleas for him to protect his feet. I turned around to unload the car and next thing I know he was straddled 10 ft up in the air between two saplings. He was a true woodland creature, running with hobbit toes, staining the hems his picture-day khaki pants before I could think to ask him to change. Scoops, the slightly more rational and rule-following of the two wasted no time finding the edges of our visibility, and a carpeted slice of the woods under rhododendrons to create his own kingdom.

Other than a damp start, the temperature was perfect for sleeping in a tent, if not a little cold for me to hit the water at Widow’s Creek Falls.