A couple of weeks ago we went on a little camping trip with our friends, the Roberts family, who moved about an hour away several months ago. We thought that by going right after school was out, the summer heat wouldn't be too bad, but of course that turned out to be a weekend of record-breaking heat. But we survived the heat and had a fun time!
Caprock Canyons State Park is about 2 hours SE of Amarillo. Our friends had been camping there before, but it was a first visit for us. It reminded me of Palo Duro Canyon with the red cliffs just appearing out of nowhere in the flat Texas panhandle.
There is a small lake there with some campsites nearby, which is where we decided to camp. The first night (a Thursday night) we were the only ones around. That made it more relaxing since we weren't so worried about how much noise all the kids (11 kids age 11 and under) were making. The only downside to the campsites was that you couldn't park your car very close. You had to haul all your stuff in and out.
We set up camp Thursday evening and had a campfire dinner. McKay and his friends Ben and Jake set up their own smaller tent for just the boys to sleep in.
Courtney and Hayley were so excited to see their friends Audrey and Eric again. They have missed them!
On Friday morning, we went for a little hike, which I'll include in the "Part 2" post. Friday afternoon we couldn't wait to cool off in the lake!
The water felt very nice on a hot afternoon. The kids had fun splashing around.
Guess who took his shirt off and forgot about sunscreen? Ouch!
Hayley picked up several little shells and saved them by putting them on her flip-flops.
After swimming, Brian found a shady spot to rest and was soon joined by Courtney and Hayley.
We roasted hot dogs for dinner.
Friday night we had a wild pig come pretty close to our campsite (although we figured he had also been there the night before when some tortillas accidentally left out disappeared). We all saw the pig come pretty close to where we were sitting around the campfire. We chased it off and then later, after we had gone to bed, heard it come back and start rummaging around. We chased it off again and found several things up in the bushes that it had drug off – including one of Hannah’s books that now has some scratches (teeth marks) on the cover.
Caprock Canyons State Park is about 2 hours SE of Amarillo. Our friends had been camping there before, but it was a first visit for us. It reminded me of Palo Duro Canyon with the red cliffs just appearing out of nowhere in the flat Texas panhandle.
There is a small lake there with some campsites nearby, which is where we decided to camp. The first night (a Thursday night) we were the only ones around. That made it more relaxing since we weren't so worried about how much noise all the kids (11 kids age 11 and under) were making. The only downside to the campsites was that you couldn't park your car very close. You had to haul all your stuff in and out.
We set up camp Thursday evening and had a campfire dinner. McKay and his friends Ben and Jake set up their own smaller tent for just the boys to sleep in.
Courtney and Hayley were so excited to see their friends Audrey and Eric again. They have missed them!
On Friday morning, we went for a little hike, which I'll include in the "Part 2" post. Friday afternoon we couldn't wait to cool off in the lake!
The water felt very nice on a hot afternoon. The kids had fun splashing around.
Guess who took his shirt off and forgot about sunscreen? Ouch!
Hayley picked up several little shells and saved them by putting them on her flip-flops.
After swimming, Brian found a shady spot to rest and was soon joined by Courtney and Hayley.
We roasted hot dogs for dinner.
Friday night we had a wild pig come pretty close to our campsite (although we figured he had also been there the night before when some tortillas accidentally left out disappeared). We all saw the pig come pretty close to where we were sitting around the campfire. We chased it off and then later, after we had gone to bed, heard it come back and start rummaging around. We chased it off again and found several things up in the bushes that it had drug off – including one of Hannah’s books that now has some scratches (teeth marks) on the cover.
Courtney was the most scared by the appearance of the pig. She had a hard time going to sleep that night. Here she is in the morning!
I guess wild pigs are fairly common in that area -- there are even signs on the highway warning you to watch out for them. I tried to get a picture of it, but it was too dark for my camera to focus (it was a black pig about the size of our dogs).
More camping pictures coming soon in Part 2!
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