Cottonwood Lillywhites: Camping Trip

We are all recovering from our much anticipated first camping trip of the year. It was especially exciting because we went close to home for a change instead of resorting to places in Davis or cache county. We had no idea how competitive camping is around here. We thought we would reserve a campsite online but turns out you need to reserve a spot 5 days in advance! I called the forest service about unreserved sites and they said they were all full and we would have to take our chances with first come first serve. So, Friday morning at 8AM Sara headed up the canyon with the kids (very early morning for them by the way). The campground people told her she could be added to a waiting list and they would notify us if it was available. Waiting list -can you believe it! We were most shocked. Back in the glory days of Logan we would drive up to Franklin Basin, pull off the road somewhere and set up camp. We had to make our own firepit, smooth out spots for tents, and bring all our own water - oh and there was no waiting list. At 11AM they called to offer us the last spot available which we gladly took. It was quite a relief to get a site because we invited Craig & Becca to come with us before having these reservations in hand.

When we checked in the prices seemed a tad high. They asked for 22.00 for the site, 8.00 for an extra vehicle, and then Kyla and Molly had to armwrestle in the backseat to see who would lose the arm and who would lose the leg. It was a fierce battle - Kyla has a pretty serious death grip and massive thunderthighs but in the end she lost the arm. Okay that's a slight exaggeration but it sure felt like we paid an arm and a leg!

The site was pretty nice (not 22.00 nice I might add) and we had a good time. Per Lillywhite tradition we did leave some items behind (tent poles) but luckily we lived close enough that Sara went and fetched them. We had our illustrious buddy heater for a friend all night long and the kids slept relatively well until the the sun came up at 6:15. Who doesn't like getting up to screaming kids at 6:15 huh? Molly had a blast playing with, rolling in, and eating the dirt. Kyla was packed really tight in what we call the eskimo suit. It is similar to the snowsuit Frankie wears in Christmas Story. So she didn't move much.

Kyla in the "Eskimo Suit"

After a greasy slippery deliciousy breakfast we went hiking to donut falls. A ranger dude told us that we probably wouldn't be able to park at the trailhead because it is always so busy. Instead he recommended that we walk a mile on the dirt road to the trailhead then hike the trail. I instantly had a wonderful vision of carrying 2 kids on a dirt road dodging cars... and then we drove all the way to the trailhead. When we got there the parking gods smiled on us and we got a spot for our 2 cars. There are only maybe 20 parking spots at the trailhead and we passed probably 50 vehicles parallel parked on the dirt road. I don't think there can be anyone happier to see an empty parking spot than us at that moment. The hike was short - about 30 minutes to the falls and it was really busy - tons of people sprawled out and taking pictures. This is also when I discovered that the term donut falls is very deceiving. There were no donuts, bagels, donut holes, or any other pastries with which to satisfy my hunger. And there sure wasn't anything close to it falling! Turns out its just where some water falls in a hole in a cave like thing. Weird huh?