Just Me and My Dad

One of Tyler's favorite books is Just Me and My Dad by Mercer Mayer.  In the book, the Little Critter goes camping with his dad.  Needless to say, it is one of my favorite books of Tyler's.  So, we have been talking for quite some time about going camping just Tyler and his Dad.

Our original plan was to attempt a father / son camping trip at Chatfield Reservoir State Park.  This way, if we had problems, we would be only 15 minutes from home.  On May 14, we went to Chatfield with our truck full of camping equipment.  Unfortunately, by the time we got there, the campground was full.  It is probably just as well, since Daddy had forgotten to bring a camera.  What good is a camping trip web page without pictures? 
We did set up the tent in the backyard and so did get some camping in.  I don't think Tyler cared too badly that it was not "real" camping.  It was actually sort of nice sleeping in the tent, because we never got woken up by Connor.

But, of course, we had to try again.  So, on Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, we packed up the truck and headed off for the Buffalo Creek area.  We were thinking of camping along the forest service road at one of the many campsites along FR550, but they were extremely full.  We ended up going down to Buffalo Campground... which was just as well. 

		Dad drove the car, because Tyler is too little. We picked out Campsite #2, because no one else was living there.  When Tyler got out of the truck, he said "This is the best camp site ever!" It wasn't really, but it was pretty good for our purposes.  We pitched the tent, put all our sleeping stuff in there and "took a nap" (Tyler jumped around in the tent screeching and having a good time). After the "nap", Dad took a picture of Tyler sitting on his camp chair.
We had lunch on the picnic table at our campsite.  We had sandwiches and bananas and fruit snacks.  It was a very nice lunch.
		Here is a photo of us both by the tent.
After lunch, we walked down by the Buffalo Creek.  We spent a lot of time right by the spot shown by the picture on the right.  It was pretty fun to throw rocks and pine-cones into the water. We didn't bring fishing poles, but that is ok because as Tyler told Dad, "there are no fish in there".  We did see some other people fishing, but obviously no one caught any fish.  If you don't catch any fish... of course you don't have to worry about bears coming by and stealing them.
		There was a little access road that ran along the Buffalo Creek that we followed for a little bit.  We saw some wild mountain bikers and hikers, but not very much other wildlife. The picture to the left is Tyler sitting on a big rock we came across on this little hike.
Here is Tyler up higher on the rock.  Daddy helped him climb up about twelve feet.  Don't tell Mommy, because she would have freaked out if she had seen how high Tyler was by himself (yes, it is only 10 or 12 feet, but no one ever said mommies were rational creatures).  Daddy climbed up there too and we spent quite a bit of time watching the trail and the creek.
		Eventually, we made it back to the campsite and built a fire.  We had brought some wood with us so we didn't have to find any while we were there.
Here is a photo of Tyler hypnotized by the fire.   Before supper, we had to go down to the creek a couple more times and throw more things in.  Tyler really liked doing that. For supper, we had cheese burgers.  They were delicious.
		Here is a picture of Tyler after dinner on one of our many walks down to the water.  Very pretty scenery and a very handsome little boy.
Eventually, we got back to the campsite and made another fire.  We made some popcorn, watched the fire some more and went to bed.  Daddy read some books to Tyler and we both fell asleep exhausted from a busy day.  Once at about 4AM, Tyler woke up and told Daddy that he heard buzzing sounds from outside the tent.  He said it sounded like a bumble - bee, but it sounded to Daddy like someone snoring in some other tent. The photo to the right is in the morning before we got up.  Tyler really likes playing in the tent.
		We had breakfast and packed up the campsite.  Before leaving (of course) we had to walk back down to the water and throw more rocks and pinecones in.  Then, we headed home.  What an adventure. It turned out that the weather was much better up in the mountains than it was down in Denver.  We had sunny and warm.  Mom and Connor had gray and cool. This is what the cover of the Mercer Mayer Book Looks Like.  It is a very nice story, and it makes me feel pretty good that Tyler likes it so much.