The original plan for Labor Day was to go to Albert Moser Campground on the Cub River, east of Preston, Idaho. Well, I waited a day too long and entered into the three day period that no longer accepts reservations for campgrounds at www.recreation.gov. I was pretty sure that campground would fill up before I would be able to get there on Saturday, and by Friday afternoon I was thinking of making sure I got to church on Sunday morning, meaning my arrival would be even later. So….
Paul and I went on a driving recon of the Bear River. For several years, I’ve wanted to see the road that goes north/south along the Bear River and the Oneida Narrows. This was the year. I was really hoping to get Paul to stand in the middle of the river and do some fishing or at least throwing the fly around a bit. But, the water was really high and no sandbars were available for that. The water is still bank full. We pulled into Preston and played at a park for a bit then got ice cream…raspberry shakes in southeast Idaho are always awesome!
While eating my ice cream, I decided we would go to the Warm River campground on the Warm River near Ashton, leaving directly after church and coming home Monday afternoon. After church we packed and got out of dodge, taking far too much stuff and far too long to pack it (and I even forgot some stuff!).
I love driving near Ashton because the landscape has my two favorite things: wheat fields and mountains.
Two hours after leaving Pocatello, we were at the campground. The nice lady host asked how my day was going, and I told her “It depends if you have sites.” I was prepared to just screw around a bit til sundown then come home if there were no campsites. But we got lucky and got a really nice site by the river….then I just had to go back to Ashton to get CASH to pay. Anyways, this campground is great for one simple reason: you are within 50 feet of the river! You can’t camp by the river like this in many places anymore, so I thought it was special.
This may be the perfect river campground for families with little kids:
1. Next to a river that is only two feet deep the entire way across.
2. The tubing and floating opportunities are awesome.
3. All sites are close to a bathroom, which is perfect if you’re little one is just getting potty-trained. Of course, the little boys have it easy, and Paul took 110% advantage of that!
4. Henry’s Fork is very nearby and Harriman State Park is 30 minutes away for adult fly-fishing adventures.
All winter long, I read the “Just me and my dad” book from the Critter series to Paul, and he would always yell “We’re gonna campout!” at some point. Well, that some point got here FINALLY. We put the tent up and then played in the river. I forgot his swim trunks and another shirt!!! Aaargh, at least I had more than enough food.
After playing in the river, we took a quick trip down to the fish viewing site about a mile away. I had seen earlier that people were watching fish, and I wanted Paul to see them and get excited about them. Standing on the platform, we could indeed see many fish below us. People would throw bread at the fish, and they would rise to it and pick it off the surface. Then someone showed up with small size dogfood, and the fish LOVED that! He was so prepared that he brought several extra bags to let others in on the action.
After an hour or so we headed back to camp and cooked up some hot dogs and then marshmallows. I left Pocatello without big marshmallows, thinking I’d just get some in Ashton. No go! All that was left was the mini-marshmallows, but they were going to have to work. And they did work! Paul liked cooking them and playing with the spear…(good thing his Mom wasn’t around to make sure he was playing super safe).
Soon enough, it was getting dark and time to go sleep. This was the part I was dreading..would he go to sleep for me? without mommy around? After about 20 minutes of playing on the leap-pad, I showed him the moon. He saw the face in the moon! I don’t know if he had heard a story about it or not, but that was pretty cool to hear him say. Then all of sudden he let out a big yawn and said he was sleepy.
The sleeping arrangements had me nervous, too. Right away when we went into the tent he wanted the orange sleeping bag. Well, that would be my down sleeping bag, versus the old green Coleman monster that I brought for him because it has so much padding. We were sleeping on individual sleeping pads that can be kind of slippery, and he moves around a lot at night. I decided to put the mats together as close as possible so I could hear him if he woke up and also move him around to keep him on the pad if needed.
Paul woke up every hour for the first four hours. After a short whimper of some sort, he’d be fast asleep again, off the pad and uncovered. So I covered him up and put him back on the pad. At 1:00 am, I was tired of it and don’t remember waking up anymore til the sun was shining. The night went well! But I could have done without the interruptions.
First thing Paul wanted to do when we got up was play in the water, so that’s what we did. That water was significantly colder than the day prior! I couldn’t stand in it for more than a couple minutes. Still, we washed our faces and got our hair wet with the really cold water, waking us up instantly. He loved it!
We packed up and headed to the Mesa Falls up the road. The lower Mesa Falls were running well, and Paul was excited to see them. One mile up the road is the Upper Mesa Falls lot. $5 to park!! I guess that paved road is expensive, and keeping open the lodge there is expensive, too.
We hiked one mile to the lower Mesa Falls, keeping watch out for swipers along the way. Don’t worry, I didn’t know what a swiper was, either, til I just looked it up. But Paul was very concerned about them! After a mile walk to the lower falls, we had lunch in the woods for a while and then hiked back. Paul is such a little hiker!
We did the upper falls boardwalk loop and then reviewed the lodge. The furs in the back room were especially fun, but he didn’t like the bear. Paul had been concerned about bears all weekend, and this proved to be no exception.
Then off to home! A great father and son weekend, everything I had hoped it would be. Except I didn’t get fishing in, but hey that will come as he gets older.
