Camping on the Payette River

We have finally gone camping for the first time since moving.  Our last camping trip was to Rainbow Basin, and it's amazing how much less baby paraphernalia we need anymore...camping is soooo much less complicated!

We had a very enjoyable long weekend camping on the Payette River.  Here are a few of our memories.

We gave the kids the ice cream maker to work on while Tom and I set up camp.  Camp is set up and Tom is finishing the ice cream!

Lukas' favorite thing is dragging the magnet to find old pieces of metal.

A big Konrad smile!  Look at those bottom teeth growing in!

It must be Dominik's turn to shake the ice cream maker!

And now it's his turn to taste it...yum!  We need to get a second ice cream maker because this one only makes a pint, which doesn't go far with 6 people.  BTW, look at those grimy fingers...he was one big dustball the whole trip!

Lukas helping me with dinner the first night.

Sweet Natalie giving us smiles!

And the obligatory s'mores after dinner...

 

 

 

Breakfast time!  We decided to try keeping it more simple this trip, and just had hot muesli every morning...delicious!

The kids played in the boys tent, and Natalie's hair stuck up a lot!

We played a "listening" game twice on this trip...very fun!  Everyone sits quietly for 10 minutes and writes down every sound they hear...if you make a sound, other people can write it down, but you can't.

We hiked down the hill to the river, then decided to have Tom go back to get the stroller for Natalie.  I told her to hold out her thumb like a hitchhiker (what's that? my kids ask).

We played in this little sandy area...some of the coldest river water I've dipped my feet in!  I always enjoyed cold water on my feet after hiking in the Sierras, but this was even colder (and my feet weren't hot from hiking).

Tom and Natalie are standing in the 6 inches of water we played in...the green part of the river is so dangerous because it would whisk anyone right away, but the shallow area was good.

"Watch me jump!"

Natalie reading her princess book with a syringa (Idaho state flower).

The last morning, I hiked with the boys again to the hot springs.  Tom had been there the previous day with Konrad and made the little pool the boys are standing in, but didn't bring the camera.  Such a neat hot springs, right next to the cold cold river.

 

We stopped at Idaho City on the way home and saw some old gold mining equipment.

Tom and I marveled at how close wilderness camping is (and I'm ecstatic to be mountain camping instead of desert camping all the time).  We saved so much time and gas compared to previous camping trips...must.go.again.soon!

Spring Break Part 2c Calico

Why oooh, why have The Happy Ones been so quiet?  Our new computer has made posting blog posts really frustrating.  Actually it is Windows 8 that is causing most of the frustration, followed by our smart phones and "the cloud".  We thought we would have made it past the learning curve by now, but 8 takes over when it wants to, and my phone cannot decide if it is Cindy's phone or mine, and our pictures are floating over our house somewhere  in space.  So anyway...

This is the post you have all been waiting for.  Yes, this is the final chapter of our spring break camping trip to Rainbow Basin near Barstow.  On our last full day of camping we went to Calico Ghost Town, which was a relatively short drive from the campground.  If you are not familiar with Calico, it is a ghost town, but it was turned into a tourist destination in the 1930s by Walter Knott, the berry farmer who created Knott's Berry Farm, in Buena Park.  This is the second time The Happy Ones have been to Calico this year, but this is the first time we were all there together.  We had a lot of fun riding the train, going to the stores, panning for "gold," exploring a mine, going through the Mystery House, and such.  Afterwards, while Dominik was napping, I gave Lukas and Konrad a shooting safety class in the nearby hills.  We talked a lot and plinked a little, and then hauled off a trash bag full of other people's junk that they left behind.  On the way back to camp we stopped off at a train museum in Barstow, and had a treat at Del Taco.  Have I mentioned I love Del Taco?  Barstow is the mecca for Del Taco lovers, because Del Taco was founded here.  Del Taco #1 is no longer but we ended up having treats at #2.

Old steam powered fire engine

Taking a bath

Checking out a mine

"Danger!!!"

Trying to stand up "straight" in the Mystery House

The train

Target shooting

Watching Dad

Train stuff

Old computer that monitored the trains years ago

Packed up and heading home

Where is Barstow?  These signs will tell you where, in relation to cities around the world.

Spring Break Part 2b (Petroglyphs)

So in part 2a, Cindy left off with us just getting comfortable in our our desert campsite.  On our second full day we decided to tackle an adventure that required an able vehicle and driver.  After I bought my big one-ton van I made some improvements that give it some ability to drive on sandy desert roads.  It does have its limits, but I was pretty confident that we could drive to Black Canyon and Inscription Canyon to check out the Indian petroglyphs.  Petroglyphs, or rock art, are where the Indians would leave symbols or pictures by pecking, or tapping on hard rock surfaces with other rocks.  The two sites we checked out were in the Black Mountains, which were about 15 miles from our campsite. About 90% of the drive was on dirt roads and some of the dirt roads were narrow "two track" trails with brush rubbing one or both sides of the van.  We had cell phone coverage most of the drive, and as an experienced desert rat I had plenty of water and tools in case we got stuck.    This day was my van's first big test, and other than the factory computer controlled traction system malfunctioning, the van passed the test.  The traction system alarm started going off once we hit our second section of sandy road.  When we returned home my mechanic replaced a $60 wheel sensor that went bad only when we got the van dirty.  Really!  When the van was on a paved road the alarm would turn off.   Did I mention that the alarm would go off every 5 to 6 minutes for about 30 seconds?  The kids went berserk, complaining to me to turn it off, which I could not because it is an "important" feature.  Important when you are traveling at high speed on a freeway, not at 10 mph on a dirt road.  I figured out how to calm the kids, every 5 to 6 minutes, by singing a song to the tempo of the alarm.  "Yellow Submarine" was the favorite, but we tried gibberish songs, the National anthems of the U.S. and France and some hymns too.

Besides the petroglyphs, we spent some time firing off model rockets, which the kids enjoyed running to collect.  We also had a thrill when a Navy/Marine jet broke the sound barrier nearly over our heads.  The immense boom scared the crud out of the kids.  

Note that the sign says "video in use".  Remember we are miles from anywhere.

A. Tillman stopped here in 1874

The boys posing in front of some Indian rock art

Dominik posing with an older petroglyph in the background

A nice sheep is covered in red paint

Natalie enjoyed the sand more than the petroglyphs (the sun might have been too bright for her).

This nice lizard is about nine inches long

Dominik returning with a model rocket he just picked up

Me preparing to launch a rocket, and moments after the sonic boom.

 Stay tuned for parts 2c and 2d...

Spring Break Part 2a

I will skip the apologies and just admit that I'm a lazy blogger these days!  I promised part 2 of our Spring Break trip, two weeks ago!  Here it is:  we went camping.  Of course!  In the desert.  Of course!  The new thing for us was to visit a new area:  Rainbow Basin near Barstow, instead of Joshua Tree as we have the past few years.  It was great!  We loved it!  The camping area was nearly empty (everyone already took their Spring Break) so we really enjoyed the wilderness by ourselves.  But of course, that's not enough...there are pictures too!

We were surprised to see that there were actual playgrounds in Owl Canyon Campground (usually, the naturally occurring geology is the playground when we're camping)...and not only that, but of the four playgrounds there, one was handicapped-accessible.  Go figure!

The boys in their Jeep.

The view of our campsite from the hill above.

Konrad the mountaineer.

The boys washing dishes.

Natalie and me on a hike.

The boys on the same hike.

Another playground...time to climb the man-made structures.

Lukas enjoyed jumping out of the swings.

Tom and me at the trailhead, after we returned.  We almost didn't do the hike because of the "moderate difficulty" sign, but it was only the first 100 feet that had challenging stepping for Natalie...after that it was easy breezy.

We did a lot of fun stuff on this trip, like putting Mentos in a soda bottle and watching it explode.

Here the boys are drinking some of the soda in an attempt to get the Mentos out and eat them.  Yuck!

I love this picture of Natalie!

At the BLM museum in Barstow, the most interesting thing is the Old Woman Meteorite, which is the second largest meteorite found in the United States.  Lukas and Konrad are studying astronomy right now, so it was perfect timing!

The boys brought their radio-controlled Jeeps, but they spent more time on their bikes or just running around.

This is the first time I've used the Dutch oven in at least 10 years...a few briquettes on top and a few on the bottom and it heats the meal like an oven. And everyone loved the chicken enchillada casserole!

One of our dinner views.

Natalie swinging at sunset.  She really enjoyed getting several swings in every day.  So unusual for a camping trip.

Lukas helped out a lot with pushing the other kids on the swings.

Every day, the weather report predicted wind...and it was a little windy, but not as bad as we expected.  Still, we set up the campfire in the campsite next to ours so the smoke wouldn't blow on our tent.

Dominik snuggling in his sleeping bag!

Lukas and Konrad climbing the hills next to our campsite...

...while Dominik gets the first hot chocolate of the morning.

Lukas and Konrad arriving back from their expedition.

Dominik pulled his metal Jeep by sitting on the rope.  So cute!

Of course there are more pictures, so this is only the end of the first half of the second part of our Spring Break.  I intend to post again soon!