It's hard to believe that we have lived in North Idaho for 5 years now and this is the first time we have gone camping. I must admit there was one reason: bears. Silly, right? When we lived in California we went camping all the time but the biggest wildlife in the area were coyotes. Here there are all kinds of things in the forest: bears, moose, cougars... BIG FOOT. I'm sure the natives are laughing at us, but still.
We were blessed to find a camping trailer on Craigslist for a great price just a few weeks ago, so this past weekend we took it for it's first run. After being tent campers for our entire marriage, camping from a trailer is luxurious. It sleeps all 6 of us comfortably and has a bathroom, kitchen & shower. Heavenly. And while I know it might be an illusion, I did feel a little safer from Big Foot in our camper.
Two other families joined us for the weekend, which is a great way to spread out the cooking. My idea of camping is mostly sitting around the fire chatting and eating our way through the day while the kids get filthy-dirty playing. I was not disappointed!
We camped along the Coeur d'Alene River where the kids played when it got too hot. With 11 kids & 3 dogs in tow there was no shortage of entertainment!
Saturday afternoon we pried ourselves from our camp chairs long enough to hike to Keller Falls and Shadow Falls. I was amazed at the seeming 20 degree drop in temperature around the falls, like nature's own A/C.
Now that we have our camper, we have many more camping trips in our near future.