October 10th-12th 2014
We were so excited! The RV was finally ready! It was October and our annual family camping trip was fast approaching. Since 2003 my sisters and I (along with our families) have gone on an annual camping trip every October. For most of those years we camped in a tent. As we have gotten older we have graduated from tents to a pop up camper to now, the RV. We chose Chewacla State Park in southeast Alabama near Auburn. Actually a lot of Auburn fans stay at this campground when attending Auburn University football games.
Plans were made and we were off for a fun-filled family weekend. This was about a 4 hour drive for us so we left early. We arrived and chose our campsites and started setting up camp. One of the first things we always do on our family camp trips is decide which campsite will be used as our central gathering area. We had 3 campsites, side by side. There was an area just behind the campsites where we were able to move our fire ring to that was perfect for gathering around the campfire. We set up the picnic tables between two of the campsites and voila! our dining area was set up.
After campsites were completed we went for a walk to check out what the campground had to offer. There are stone cabins built by the CCC back in the 1930’s. You can rent one of these if camping is not your thing. There are 36 full hookup campsites and 10 primitive sites. They also offer a group camp area. Lake Chewacla is beautiful and great for fishing. There’s no boat ramp but you may bring non-motarized boats such as canoes or kayaks.There are several hiking trails, which we love and they have wonderful mountain biking trails. We were really impressed with these trails and tried them out even though we are casual bikers. It was interesting watching the serious bikers come through though. If you like mountain biking I highly recommend this park. We didn’t use the bathrooms very much since we have one in the RV but from what I remember it was relatively clean.
Here is a link to Chewacla State Park:
We biked down to the lake. Hercules, our Yorkie fur baby rode in the basket and he enjoyed the ride as much as we did. There is a playground there and the kids, big and little play around on the playground for a bit. After dinner we got our campfire going and David, who is our family “ghost” story teller told us some stories. Since our first family camp trip David has entertained us with these crazy stories that were meant to be scary but always ended up being funny and they never ended, they just continued on at the next campout. As soon as it's dark and the campfire roaring the kids yell out, "OK Uncle David tell the story!"
The next day we did a big hike. I’m not sure which hike it was but we hiked through the woods to a rocky river with a small waterfall. This was a more challenging hike than what we usually do on these camping trips. We usually just do a walk through the woods but this hike had a lot of hills so a lot of up and down hill. But the river with the big boulders was fun and we love a waterfall of any size.
That night we attended a bonfire hosted by the campground. They invited everyone to tell a ghost story. It was mostly children who told stories. They got to hold the flashlight while they told their story. The hosts didn’t rush them and the kids had a blast telling their stories to a captive audience. After the kids had told their stories the hosts told us a story about a crazy woman, who dressed in red who had lived in the area many years ago and caused all kinds of mischief. As the story started to come to an end we realized that the crazy lady dressed in red was crouched on a rock in our midst, listening to the story. If gave the kids a fright and was the perfect end to a mid October evening.
On Sunday we went to the lake and rented canoes and paddle boats. It was a beautiful day and what fun it was to paddle around the lake. Even Hercules loved riding in the canoe. The boats rent for $7 an hour. The lake isn’t huge so an hour is ample time to tour around, view the waterfall from the lakeside and just have a a good old fashioned time before returning the boat. You can also swim in the lake. It’s swim at your own risk with no lifeguard. They have a pretty cool diving platform that the kids we observed seemed to love.
On Sunday it was time to pack up camp and head out for home. We had had the perfect weekend. Camping, biking, hiking, boating and ghost stories. We were ready to go home and start planning our next adventure.
