The Blanch Herd: Tony Grove Camping {8/10

You'd think that two (spectacular) visits to Tony Grove in one summer (in one week, no less) would be enough to fill our Tony Grove buckets. But you would think wrong! We lucked out in late July when an alert popped up on Gregg's new app that tracks when people cancel campground reservations saying that site #14 in the Tony Grove campground was open for Thursday through Saturday, August 10-12. We snapped it right up and then counted down the days till we'd be there in our happy place. We packed a lot into our little stay - lots of hiking and biking, and reading and relaxing. It was the perfect off-grid little get away.

Thursday 10 August 2023

Arrived at our site, happy to realize it wasn't the steep, hillside site we were thinking it was. It was still on a hill, but the parking pad was fairly level, so that was great. It was super shady, too, and we were pretty much wearing hoodies the whole time (LOVE IT!!). After our beef stew (from a can - it's a camping treat!) and grilled cheese dinner, we walked down to the lake. Cal and I climbed up to the ridge above the lake, and just ooohed and aaaaahed at the flowers up there. Sam and Gregg stayed at water level and skipped rocks. We came back for a fire and s'mores and then beddy bye. Gregg and I stayed up a bit longer than the kids and happened to catch a couple shooting stars through the little window of sky we had directly above us.

I actually didn’t really intend this to be the summer of Louisa May Alcott / Little Women, but once I got going, it has been hard to stop. So why not add a remixed version of the story? This was a clever retelling with all Black characters, after emancipation and through the Civil War and after. I have never heard of the Freedpeople’s Colony of Roanoke or the history of Liberia but both played a part in this story. Entertaining and educational historical fiction.

When we were here in July, the paintbrush was just
starting to bloom, but this week the blossoms were booming!

These fireweed flowers weren't blooming
either, back in July, so I was happy to see them
this time. They totally remind me of my Grandpa
Thornley, so that was happy for me.

Seriously! All the flowers were completely stunning!

This one is unknown to me . . . but it
was cute!

Made it to the top!

Cal was testing out a new fire building technique, which
had potential, but ended up needing a little tweaking.
But she did a great job listening to Gregg's tips and getting
this thing going.

Banana boats, too!

Friday, 11 August 2023

We've been long-wanting to hike again to White Pine Lake or Mount Naomi, and this year worked out because we were camping here so we could leave early, and our kids are big and strong enough to hike an 8+ mile hike. We even toyed with the idea of doing both during our stay, but in the end just stuck with one, and it was awesome. We decided on White Pine Lake, which was nearly 8 miles from the trailhead, plus about 3/4 miles from our campsite, so our total mileage was well over 9 miles! Go us! The trail was pretty crowded at times, with everyone and their dog (and horse) (and bike) either coming or going. But we had a few stretches along the trail, and while we were first at the lake, of pretty, quiet, solitude. It's such a beautiful piece of the world!

Ready to rock and roll! (I don't even care that
I look like the kid from UP! - I'm all about comfort
on my hikes these days. ;)

Amazing reflection on the lake this mornin'.

Up we go.

The flowers were completely out of this world!

Pretty sure that's Naomi in the middle - with some
snow still on the ridge!

About halfway, a little break and time for cookie bars.

Just about to the descent to the lake!

I spy the lake!

Glorious!!

These logs were perfectly placed to make a sofa
for us to rest on and gaze at the lake.

Somehow we spotted a moose waaaay over there
across the way. (Ten million points if you can spot it
in this pic! Ha.)

Climbing back out from the lake - a lot hotter by now.

White-ish, green-ish paintbrush!

All the colors!

Oh my heart!!

Dr. Seuss flowers. Love them.

Almost back to Tony!

Back at camp, we took a nice long rest in the shade,
but in less time than I would have expected, we were
ready for another adventure.

We went down to cool off in the lake, and since it
was pretty breezy, we definitely did stay cool
(hence the hoodie while standing in the lake).

Rock balancer.

Alligator log riders.

We did get the air mattress out, and the kids and I
enjoyed floating for a bit.

She was chilled to the bone, so Dad
bundled her up in all the towels.

When we got back to camp, Cal took my phone
to the little meadow on a hill in the sun behind the
bathrooms and snapped some pics of the
flowers.

And herself. Ha.

Friday night pizza in the mountains - the best!

We make it on tortillas and just use
a frying pan with a lid. Works like a charm!

Back in the hammock for some more reading time after
dinner.

Can't get better than this! Popcorn for
dessert!

Plus games! This time we figured out Battleship Card
Game, which was super fun.

Saturday, 12 August 2023

On Saturday morning, we took our time with breakfast and clean up, and then we took a little hike on the trail out of the campground, just a bit down the road from our site. We hiked maybe a mile to the gate, and I had fun remembering when I hiked down this trail with Heather way back when we hiked from Smithfield Canyon to Tony Grove. The flowers were (yep, you guessed it) amazing!! When we got back to camp, we put everything away and loaded up and then walked down to the lake and then hiked around it and back to camp. We pulled out at 11:59 pm, one minute before checkout, so we could squeeze out every minute of our reservation. It was a wonderful camping time!