Doughton Park Camping 2019

Back in September, Labor Day weekend, we returned to Doughton Recreation Area with our friends, the Shinglers. We initially tried to reserve sites at Hanging Rock, but it was completely booked. In North Carolina, and I’m guessing in the rest of the country, state and federal campgrounds have a mix of reservation sites and first come sites. On non-holiday weekends, the more popular parks sell out of reservation sites months in advance, and walk-up sites can’t be counted on.

After endless hours browsing all the popular campgrounds, we decided, “What the heck. We loved Doughton last time. Let’s just go there.“ We looked at the online reservations for Doughton, but decided we didn’t like the location of the two or three sites left and would chance it on something better. The sites we held on the last trip had been lumped together into a group site, and it was already taken. Leaving this up to chance was definitely anxiety inducing for me, but the introduction to the new year of school year was so hectic that we all had the mentality of mountains or bust, even if we get stuck with a less than ideal tent spot.

We arrived well after sunset and really lucked out on our spot. The Shinglers arrived a few minutes before us and scoped out a couple sites sites that backed up to a wooded area. We set up the tents in the dark, built a fire, and roasted marshmallows.

The campground wasn’t full, so we had a bit of privacy. Maybe it was the kids’ yelling that warded off would-be neighbors, or maybe it was that the parking was up the hill from the sites. Either way, it was perfect. 

The next morning the kids disappeared for hours on end building a fort and swinging from a vine. I tried. The tree hit my back. It was humiliating.

For a short hike, we walked in a different direction than the last trip. Rather thank walking to Brinegar’s cabin, we walked towards the visitor center. There were a few nice views including cows and deer. There was an old fence that Scooby didn’t want me to take his picture on, but I did anyway. He looked handsome and so old.

After the hike, I made use of our brand new Dutch oven to cook blackberry and peach cobbler over the coals. While it wasn’t perfect (I would add more sugar and fewer coals), it was memorable and worthy of seconds. Actually, unless camp food is truly terrible, you just eat until it’s gone so there is less to clean.

The highlight of this visit came the second evening. I looked at my phone and saw we were about 10 minutes out from sunset. I casually mentioned this to the group, and they asked if I was suggesting we go up to the Doughton picnic area to watch. We hauled butt up the Blue Ridge Parkway and pulled into the last two parking spots. There was a crowd of people staked out on the boulders overlooking the western ranges, and at least three large telescopes were pointed up at the sky. What we didn’t know was that it was the day after a new moon, and with a perfectly clear sky, all the local star gazers were out. I believe it was actually a club, because the man with the super huge telescope had brought a ladder. As soon as the sun was out of sight, he was managing a long line of strangers, kids and adults alike, showing them the first moon, the moons of Jupiter and finally the rings of Saturn. It was spectacular! Every few people, he would have to readjust the telescope to keep up with the rotation of the earth.

The second morning we broke down site and visited Brinegar’s cabin and ate lunch back at the picnic area. We had an epic hot dog lunch with all the fixings – onions, cheese, avocados, chips, dip, even had a watermelon from our garden. We were all completely stuffed before heading back to Raleigh.