For my family, summer means camping and road trips.  There is nothing like taking all six members of my family and enough stuff to supply a small country, out on the road.  We pack the Suburban right up to the gills and head out on the open road to find adventure.

We usually try to do at least one longer distance road trip as a family each year.  This year, we managed two!  Our first trip we went down to Arizona to visit family.  On our way back we stopped off in the California Redwoods.  Jedediah Smith park was lovely.  I especially enjoyed relaxing next to the river.  I’m sure we made quite the spectacle trying to air up our failing air mattress in the bathroom.

Our second road trip was Yellowstone National Park.  This is our third time camping in Yellowstone.  Each time we see new things.  This time was especially nice because we took a friend who was once an employee in the park.  He had lots of wonderful suggestions for spots to see.  I would love to stay and camp for an extended time someday.

We also did a few local camping weekends this summer.  I would love to be able to get out and explore more of our local parks.  Rainbow Falls state park, Cape Disappointment, and Bruceport county park were all fantastic.

Rainbow Falls has a beautiful river to walk along.  There were some areas that you could get down into the water.  We chose a poor weekend to camp though.  It seems a local farmer has been throwing an epic party for their local graduation weekend for the last few years.  The music and partying went on all night long and we could hear them clearly even with ear plugs.  I would like to try again another weekend to see if it is quieter.

Bruceport offers stunning views of the bay.  I really enjoyed both the sunrise and sunset over the water.  The camp spot we had was nice and big.  Plenty enough room for all of our tents and people.  I really enjoyed drinking my coffee with the cool bay breeze in the morning.

Cape Disappointment was a wonderful beach camping area.  Plenty of rocks to climb for the boys, and a beach to walk in the evening for me.  It was nice and quiet, just the way I like it.

I’ll be back to give more details on all of our camping trips this summer with links, photos, and lots of great stories of camping and road tripping with three teenagers.