Christmas Meadows Camping {8/17 - 8/19}

Just like with Tony Grove, we were able to snag an opening at the Christmas Meadows campground in the Uintas and it just so happened to be exactly a week after our Tony Grove trip. I can't think of a better way to spend August than in the mountains! (We seriously considered heading out the next weekend, too, but (spoiler alert) we ended up staying home.)

Thursday, 17 August 2023

We arrived Thursday evening and got camp set up. It had clearly been raining, so there were puddles in the road, but when we arrived, it was just cool and cloudy. We walked down the hill from our site to the creek to explore. We played games and ate "raw" s'mores (it was a bit breezy so we didn't start the fire quite yet). We walked down to the meadow to see if we could spot a moose. We relished the hoodie weather and zero cell service!

The view from our campsite. Not too shabby!

Home sweet campsite.

Sam is a s'more/marshmallow monster.

We love this meadow!

No moose this evening, but we did spot what I thought
were two muskrats in the water (but we later figured out
they were beavers!).

Completely stunning!

Friday, 18 August 2023

Gregg and I woke up before the kids and took a walk down to the meadow (you'll see that this is a theme of our trip: walking to the meadow). We spotted not one, but two moose! And this is when we realized the muskrats were actually beavers because they were slapping their tails on the water at a man and his dog who were down by the creek. We watched the moose for a while - it was almost like a nature channel show with the male moving closer to the female and the female running away, then coming back, then running away again, and the male slowly moving continuously closer. A mating dance? Eventually Gregg went back to get the kids, and they were able to see them, too. We had a quick little rain shower that was just enough to wet the windshield of the car while we were getting breakfast ready. Luckily that was the most rain we got the whole weekend! Just a couple other tiny little drops through the rest of our stay. 

Oh, and I can't forget to mention breakfast! We were remembering camping trips of yore when we would cook popup biscuits in our little sandwich makers over the fire, so when I was at the store to buy some of those for our trip, I noticed the popup cinnamon rolls in the same section and threw a can of those into my cart. When I was packing up our food for this trip, I noticed a bag of sausage links in the freezer, so I threw them into the cooler. I bet you can guess what we had for breakfast this morning: cinnamon rolls and sausage! What a treat! And sometime during breakfast (either making or eating) the female moose ran right past our campsite, down by the stream!

After breakfast we lounged about and played cornhole and read, and then we went on a little hike on the trail just up from the campground. We made it to the stream crossing, the same as we always do. I always wonder what is beyond that spot, but it did make a good turnaround spot and time since Gregg's parents were coming to spend the day and were scheduled to arrive soon.

Matchy matchy Blanchard squared.

Grandma and Grandpa Blanchard got there right when they were planning to, and we all ate lunch together, played more cornhole, talked, walked to the meadow (surprise!), played games, walked on the trail, and then ate dinner before they headed back home. Cal says it's more fun to camp with other people, and even though they weren't camping, it was definitely fun to have some visitors to share the day with.

Blanchard shirts!

Gregg and Cal kayaked from our campsite to the middle
of the meadow (where we saw the beavers earlier), where
I picked them up in the car. Later, Sam and Gregg and I 
went back and paddled around in this deeper (only maybe 5
feet), calmer water. Heavenly!

I've never seen an alive witches broom
so close to the ground!

Yes, he did fall out and bonk his head. Maybe not
this particular time, or from this particular angle, but
there were definitely tears from a hurt head at some point
on this trip.

After Paul and Kim left, it got pretty windy
and a few spattering rain drops were falling,
so we all piled into the trailer to snuggle
and stay warm and tell stories.

Saturday, 19 August 2023

Another beautiful morning, another walk to the meadow to look for moose (we saw one!). Then we came back to camp, ate our campfire-sandwich maker biscuits with apricot jam and eggs for breakfast. Played more cornhole (another theme of the trip), read in the sunshine, packed up camp, and headed out for one more adventure. Gregg took the kids on another kayak trip down the creek from our campsite. My adventure was to drive the car and trailer down to the pick up spot and meet them. It all worked out smoothly! Mission accomplished!

Another camping trip, another novel. I’m on a roll! This one has been on my TBR for a very long time, but when Anne Bogel recently recommended it on a blog post about epistolary novels, I put it on hold and finally got to reading it! The premise is that letters keep falling from the statue of Nevin Nollop, the person who came up with the famous sentence The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog, and as the letters fall, the council leaders of this island nation declare each letter against the law. And the most clever part is that the author actually stops using the letters too! It gets pretty crazy at the end when only 5 letters are left! Haha. So it’s highly entertaining (I literally lol-ed multiple times) but also has some dystopian themes, too, and a touch of romance. Super fun!

Down to the creek for a kayak.

And they're off!

I spy my favorites coming around the bend!

Clouds building up! We left in the nick of time (yes, one minute before
checkout, but later a big, wet rainstorm came through! We drove
in rain from Evanston to almost Monte Cristo (after our lunch at
Wendy's).