One of our Christmas gifts was a tent... and an air mattress and 4 sleeping bags. We are going camping! We have decided we wanted to start doing weekend camping trips build up eventually to going to see some excellent state parks...in other states. We obviously don't want to drive across the country to go camping at Yellowstone and realize it does not work to go camping with our kids and we hate it.
So now to begin researching camp sites and make some tentative plans. Where are your favorite camping sites? Sights? which way does that go. Stupid internet. What level of roughing is it? 1 being full of motor homes and pop up trailers with showers, chlorine pools, and hot showers. 5 being dig your hole to poop in and bring your mosquito netting so you don't get malaria.
We really like camping. (Of course, my husband and I liked camping BEFORE kids...so that helps!)
ReplyDeleteGoing someplace super close for the first time can be a good plan...like, Warrenville. I'm all about going to a place with a nice bathroom situation and putting my tent close by. Camping is a lot of work...but worth it for us. Michigan has some really nice campgrounds.
We love camping. We have camped at a lot of KOA sites because they usually have a pool, a store, Wifi, playground, clean bathrooms and you can find a spot without much advance notice.
ReplyDeleteThe downside is that they are usually by the highway, so you get a lot of traffic noise at night.
Some of the KOAs that we like are the ones near:
Starved Rock (has some nice spots at the top of the hill)
Turkey Run State Park in Indiana
Coloma/St Joe in Michigan... this one is kind of dusty, but it's 10 minutes from St. Joseph, which is a really cute town with a very nice beach.
We also camped this year at PJ Hoffmeister State Park in Michigan. It's a very busy campsite... has access to a private beach, hiking and ranger programs for the kids. It has really nice restrooms. We really like it there... it is VERY wooded, so it's better to go when it's hot, because the campground stays really cool.
Cantigny is nearby and not hard. :)
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