Good thread Jerry! Best-- any of the times we head out to our favorite remote wilderness site on the lake! Every time is awesome and for each time there have been some priceless moments. Last year's priceless moment was out kayaking from the site with my daughter watching a loon family. Then sitting in the rain in the kayak watching a bald eagle that was perched in a tree by the shore line! The year before a mother moose and calf spending the afternoon at our site while a bald eagle circled above! worst-- would be a tie between the place with the power plant humming in the background that sold colored condoms in the camp store but no milk or the place in NH where golf carts zipped around and through our site at all hours, the bathroom was falling apart, and the campground looked like a trailer park with all of the seasonal campers! They all looked at us strange too because we were the transients! We left that place early! Couldn't leave the one with the power plant early because we were there to attend my cousin's wedding! Gotten lost-- I'm sure we have but I'm drawing a blank on that one right now! Honestly, I'm pretty good at reading maps and directions but my husband is not. You men might understand that he doesn't always appreciate my input in those situations! Ran out of gas-- well, I had a close call one summer when towing a boat up to Maine! Luckily, I did make it to the gas station just in time! stranded-- sort of, once when we were taking our boat out on one of our tidal rivers we packed up all of gear and got in the boat. Untied the boat at the dock and the incoming current immediately pulled the boat upriver away from the dock. Then the boat would not start! So my husband started throwing a rope to the shore to some people on the dock. The rope wouldn't reach and tide was pulling us further away. Then he finally just jumped in the river and swam to shore with the tow line. Then he pulled the boat in. We tied the boat up and he went and got the tow vehicle (at that time a van) to pull the boat out! I stayed with the boat. Then the next thing I know he was just standing next to the van and the van was running. I couldn't figure out what the problem was so I went over! HE LOCKED THE KEYS INSIDE THE VAN! He calmly told me what happened and I just lost it with hysterical laughing! I laughed so hard I fell down! This was also one of those times where I'm not sure he appreciated my input! He ended up doing something to remove a hinge on one of the back windows and then was able to open it completely. Then he lowered our screaming child through the window and sent her up front to open the door!

For our first tent trip, our kids were 2.5 and 4. I had no idea if they would like it, so we went only for 3 nights to a fairly close camp (about an hour away). We all loved it, and have since camped at the same camp exclusively. Of course, that was only 2 years ago, so we've got some time to find other camps! You didn't mention what kind of vehicle you have other than a car. What kind of car? You may be hard pressed to pack all you need into a car. We have a station wagon with no rooftop carrier, and we barely fit all we needed for just the three nights. We did not take bikes or scooters or firewood or dog . (We had one at the time.) We did shop for the perishable once we got to the camp, so I was able to use the big cooler to pack other stuff. The biggest volume hoggers were the tent, cooler, food container, tool/utensil/misc container, sleeping bags, clothing bags, and dining fly. I tried to condense as much as I could in each of the containers, like packing only as much oatmeal or sugar or Captain Crunch in one Gladware container as we would use for three days. Condense condense condense!!! That was my mantra for the three days it took me to pack!! We packed every cubic inch of that vehicle. Under the seats, under the kid's feets, under my feet in the passenger side, between the kids, between me and my husband; we cozied some smaller items in with the spare tire and in every crevice we could find. It was a project! The next year, we broke down and took two vehicles so we could bring the bikes, and skip the shopping trip (it was SO expensive at that grocery store near the camp...duh!) This year, we have a new F150 truck, so we may be able to pare down to one vehicle again! We'll see! My husband kinda babies that truck and is hesitant to take it into the "wilderness" of the state park! mozy

I've never slept well on a camping trip, Kath, so maybe that's normal. That's a really spot you have there, though, I'm glad you're adventerous to take the kids on trips like that. Camping is a lot of work, too, I remember that!

we did not camp Grand Teton NP in the fall, but did volunteer there for the entire season in 2011. We worked at the visitors center at Flagg Ranch, and lived in our camper at Coulter Bay. That has to be our favorite "camping" trip ever. Let me make one comment about your photo of Mt. Moran. The pegmatite and limestone cap are to the right of the "skillet" in your photo...I believe your photo is inverted. The Pegmatyte (the dark nearly verticle stripe) that runs up to the top of the peak is a different kind of rock that filled a crack in the base rock while the mountain was still far below the surface, and the darker rock was molten. The tiny white line that touches the Pegmatyte at the top on the left is limestone that was above the rock of the mountain before it was lifted above the ground, and has not yet abraded away. The skillet is a patch of snow that usually does not melt in summer. I called it a guitar, because skillets are round, and its not. The rangers did not like me to do that, but I took a "volunteers privilege" and did it anyway.... Your photo brought back a summers worth of wnderful memories...Thank you. Bill