DeSoto State Park 11/10/16

It’s Veterans Day, and a perfect time to take the camper out for a three-day weekend!  Since we jumped into camping in October 2012 we have heard that Desoto State Park is one of the best places to camp, so we figured it was time to test it out. 

Kelly and I purposely chose our November trip to be in Fort Payne in hopes that we would be able to see lots of Fall foliage.  Unfortunately, we were in the midst of a major two-month drought, which meant the leaves were not very colorful and campfires were not allowed.  A bummer for sure, but it’s still amazing how pretty this area is even when it’s not at its colorful best.  Extra bonus is this site had cable and it was the Creative Arts Festival weekend! We weren't sure what that meant but sounded like it had potential.

We left Thursday evening immediately after work and drove the two hours to Desoto.  Setup was easy and fast enough to allow us a family walk that evening.  Desoto is very clean and well-kept so it is nice walking around.  They have large sites that accommodate a lot of camper sprawl (especially those of us with kids).  It was quite cold however, and ended up being in the mid-30s on night one.

Friday morning we woke up and started looking at what we could do that day.  I happened to get up at 6:15 so I could take a walk in the daylight, and wouldn’t you know I saw eight deer during the 20 minutes I was walking around?! It was almost too easy to find a white-tailed deer … just walk about 30 feet into the woods and listen for movement.  More than likely it’s going to be a deer (in our backyard, by the way, that sound is going to be a squirrel).  

After the family woke up, we loaded into the truck and drove to Desoto’s restaurant (after the kids had a couple donuts to snack on- check out that SPREAD!). 

The park restaurant is a country-style eating place that has an incredible breakfast.  We ate lots of biscuits, grits, bacon, sausage, eggs, and something called “red-eye gravy.”  Needless to say, it was an awesome start to the trip. 

Next, we drove into Fort Payne and ended up getting some supplies (and can't forget pulling over to take the required picture with the robot).

We also spent a few minutes in the Tractor Supply Store and managed to avoid purchasing some things for the kids that we absolutely did not need.  After this waste of time, we decided to go see Desoto River Falls.  It was about 15-20 minutes away but worth it when we got there.  The view is amazing and would be even better if there had been any rain recently to help the waterfall be an actual waterfall.  The lack of water, however, did allow us to do some better exploring and go into some places that are normally under water.  We stayed for close to two hours and then headed back to the camper. 

                   

Carter time!  Caroline was asleep in the car

Carter loved the adventure but waterfalls would have been pretty awesome!

So many captions...

We headed back for chili Kelly worked up in the crockpot and she also did some research and found out that the fine city of Fort Payne was having a Veterans Day parade that night.  We drove down the mountain and parked right in front of the Alabama (the band, not state or football team) outdoor stage.  We then walked up their main street and waited for the parade to begin.  It was fun to experience some local flavor as we usually don’t get these opportunities on our camping trips.  We saw war vets from all the way back to World War II, as well as all different types of floats.  The kids also managed to score lots of candy because there weren’t many people sitting near us.  It seemed like we were just raking in the sugar.  After the parade ended we played a little on the playground (in the dark) and then drove back to the camper for nighttime preparations.

Saw some friends on the way!

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the camper and then went exploring. 

Beautiful morning!

We found a boardwalk that went pretty deep into the woods and gave us a lot of time to enjoy the outdoors.  At the end of the boardwalk there are several trails so we chose the easy route and climbed a few rocks before heading back to the truck. 

So many trails!  I was able to go for a little run and it was gorgeous running in the woods and through the boulders.  Although I did fall flat on my face at one point- whoops!

Desoto was hosting a festival that had some local artisans and musicians. For much of the time the kids had the bouncy house to themselves and we were able to relax and listen to some great hippy music! The kids both wanted their faces painted as you'll see in the rest of the pictures. That paint stayed put!

They'll let us know if there's blood:) 

The scary dragon and Elsa

Somewhere around 5:00 we headed back to the campsite because … this campground has cable tv at each site.  That’s right!  I had the Auburn game hooked up and ready to go on the outside tv!  It was pretty awesome, even if Auburn played pretty poorly.  Kelly made some awesome chicken wings for the game and we devoured them! Kelly and Carter went on their own little adventure. Once the game was over and there were chicken bones everywhere, we locked the kids inside for movie night before everyone drifted off to sleep.

Literally... locked them in for movie night!

Chicken Wangs and Football

Carter got a round of Go-Fish in before bedtime

Sunday morning … you guessed it … back to the restaurant!!  This time it was a buffet so we managed to eat even more.  The kids convinced us to play duck-duck-goose on the huge outside entertainment deck before we went back to the camper to prepare for the drive home.  It was another fun trip, one that would have been much better had we been able to make a fire!

They love some Duck Duck Goose

Until next time!  We give DeSoto State Park a 9... Facilities were good, we loved the restaurant and our spot with the trail in the woods, the festivites, the trails and boulders!