Editor’s Note: This post is written by a member of LTV’s sponsored content team, The Leisure Explorers. Do you own a Leisure Travel Van and enjoy writing? Learn more about joining the team.

“The question is not what you look at but what you see” Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

At first, we planned to write two articles about 22 Central Texas State Parks. However, during our trip to New Mexico and Arizona in Part One and Part Two of this series, we decided to return to Canada through Texas. This detour allowed us to visit eight more parks, and in this story, we’ll share our experiences in those parks.

Monahans Sandhills State Park

Our first stop back in Texas was Monahans Sandhills State Park which has a very good visitor center describing the history of the park and the surrounding area. There is a very short walking trail through a native plant garden where spring blooms have begun. Our campsite was right beside the dunes and had a covered shelter which was very welcome with the high temperatures. We tried sliding down the dunes like we had done at White Sands National Park in New Mexico, but the sand here was extremely fine, so we just sunk in. However, we enjoyed the physicality of freely hiking through the dune area.

Monahans Sandhills State Park

Hiking to the top of the tallest dune

Nature Trail flowers in bloom

Lake Colorado State Park

The following morning the winds were forecast to pick up significantly, so we attempted to leave early enough to avoid them, but it didn’t work. We got caught in very bad winds, with dust blowing across the Interstate as we headed east to Lake Colorado City State Park. The scary handling of our Unity in high winds has now prompted us to book our suspension upgrades to be done this summer!

Dust blowing across the Interstate with high winds

This park has a large man-made lake which is good for fishing. There are also a couple of hiking trails, so we did the Cactus Trail for 5 kilometers along the lake. There were unique rock formations and some Lace Hedgehog Cactus blooming.

Cactus Trail along Lake Colorado City

Cool rock pillar along Cactus Trail

Lace Hedgehog Cactus starting to bloom

Abilene State Park

As we left the park the next day to head to Abilene State Park, we were amazed by the number of wind turbines, and it turned out that this area had the largest number of wind turbines in Texas. The state of Texas is the largest wind power producer in the United States and ranks fifth globally.

Wind Turbines everywhere

We arrived at Abilene on a Saturday, and it was extremely busy as many of the Texas State Parks are on the weekends. We walked along the Elm Creek and Eagle trails to see the CCC structures in the park.

Abilene State Park CCC structures

CCC built water tower

There is a 5800-gallon swimming pool, which wasn’t open for the season yet, and a large water tower by the pool.

Pavilion by the pool

View of the empty pools

On Sunday, the park completely emptied out, and we did a mountain bike ride on the dam and north trails. Unfortunately, Sharon ran over a very large thorn and got her third flat tire of this trip. Naturally, it occurred halfway through the trail, so we had to walk her bike back to the campground. We carry spare tubes in the RV, so I swapped the tube, and we did an additional ride around the campground to see the other camping sections and the bird blind.

Lake Abilene and the dam

Torrey Yucca in bloom

Dinosaur Valley State Park

After two nights at Abilene, we drove to Dinosaur Valley State Park, it deserves a multiple-day stay. The dinosaur tracks in the park are incredibly cool to see! There are 2 types of tracks you can see in this park along the Paluxy River, the Acrocanthosaurus and Sauroposeidon tracks. They were discovered in the 1930’s and some were excavated in the 1940’s.

Types of tracks in Dinosaur Valley State Park

Acrocanthosaurus tracks

Acrocanthosaurus and Sauroposeidon tracks in the main site

We first checked out the Blue Hole site, but the water level was too high to see the tracks there, so we went to the Ballroom site, where we waded into the water to see the three toed Acrocanthosaurus tracks. Later in the afternoon, we went to the main site, where a pool had both tracks, although the Sauroposeidon ones were harder to distinguish.

Joel wading out at the Ballroom site

The next day we decided to do a long hiking loop (13 kilometers) covering Denio Creek, Cedar Break, Black-Capped Vireo, Overlook, Limestone Ledge, and the Paluxy River trails. The Denio Creek trail was fascinating with the geology along the creek.

Denio Creek

Black-Capped Vireo was more of a forest walk with nice spring-blooming flowers. The Overlook was high up but didn’t have the best view of the Paluxy River. We could only do part of the Limestone Ledge trail as they had a section of the loop closed for habitat restoration.

Dinosaur Valley State Park flower collage

3 Juniper Hairstreak Butterflies

We returned to the main site river crossing and then followed the Paluxy River trail. This turned out to be our most spectacular find! Further along the river’s edge, the map showed there were some more dinosaur tracks to see. Well, these ones were not underwater, so we got the best view of any of the tracks we had seen!

Paluxy River view

Acrocanthosaurus Tracks

Cleburne State Park

After we got checked in at Cleburne State Park, we did a short walk on the Perch Point Fishing, Coyote Run, and Fossil Ridge trails, and we were amazed by the field of flowers by the water treatment plant.

Cleburne State Park field of flowers

We decided to ride our mountain bikes on Coyote Run, Spillway, and Limestone Ridge Trails the following day. Coyote Run had some very steep rocky sections, but when we got to the Spillway trail, it was fascinating to see the 3-tiered limestone spillway built by the CCC.

Riding Coyote Run Trail

Cedar Lake Spillway built by the CCC

Limestone Ridge was a trail built by DORBA (Dallas Offroad Bike Association), but it had a lot of poison ivy, so we cut the ride short and headed back on the main park road. We saw several very large Ammonite fossils along the trails, which was interesting.

3-tiered spillway carved by hand by the CCC

Ammonite fossils

We have good friends who live in Plano, so we stopped in for a visit and also visited the Plano Mercedes Dealership to have some service work completed. We had an excellent experience with their service shop.

Lake Tawakoni State Park

The next stop was Lake Tawakoni State Park which was just over an hour from Plano. After we got to our site, we went for a 5 km hike on the Spring Point Trails and the White Deer Trail. The Honey Locust tree was unique, with massive thorns on the trunk.

Lake Tawakoni and Spring Point

Honey Locust

Also, a fascinating display board talked about a fly emergence in 2007 that, in turn, started a massive spider (Long Jawed Orb Weavers) invasion and web over the Spring Point Trail. The massive web setup attracted researchers to study the short-lived phenomenon. Luckily, we only saw a few webs on our hike.

Spider gathering

The next morning before we left the park, we did another 5-kilometer hike on the Frackleberry, Red Oak, and Orange Osage Trails. On these trails, we saw a unique caterpillar, a Mayapple plant with some disease, a Virginia Spiderwort flower, and a very small snake. If we’d had more time, we would have finished the other loop trail or ridden our MTBs on these trails.

Unique caterpillar

Virginia Spiderwort

As we left the park and drove along the east side of the lake, there was a pretty spillway with lots of pelicans at the base.

Lake Tawakoni dam

Caddo Lake State Park

Caddo Lake State Park is in the piney woods region of east Texas on Big Cypress Bayou. The area had an interesting history, including the assassination of the tax collector in 1840, as the residents didn’t want to pay taxes. Can you imagine that today? We only stayed one night at this park while trying to cover the distance on our way home. We had a self-imposed deadline to be home by April 26 so we could file our tax returns.

Saw Mill Pond in Caddo Lake State Park

How the Big Cypress Bayou formed

The next morning before leaving the park, we went down to the pier to see the bayou, but no alligators were around. Then we hiked all the trails to see the CCC-built buildings and returned on a different trail to see the flooded-out boat ramp and dock temporarily closed.

CCC Rec Hall

Sharon tries the tree on for size

Atlanta State Park

Our last State Park in Texas was Atlanta State Park on Lake Wright Patman. The park had done a controlled burn a few days before, and at our end of the park, the trails were showing closed. Luckily, they opened the trailhead near us the next morning so that we could leave directly from the RV. We did a long 16-kilometer hiking day, including the White Oak Ridge, Hickory Hollow, Terrace, Volksmarch, Bobo’s Ferry, and Arrowhead trails. We could see and smell the burn area as we walked the White Oak Ridge trail, and there were even a few spots with smoke still rising.

Controlled burn done on right side of trail

When we saw the name Terrace Trail, we imagined some rock/cliff terrace, but it just took you to an empty field where the lake had overflowed and killed the trees! After the Volksmarch trail, we reached the boat ramp at the far end of the park and had our lunch, and watched the school group of kids going for a swim in the lake. Bobo’s Ferry trail reminded us of the Natchez Trace, where you could see the wagon wheels had dug a trough along the path.

Bobo’s Ferry Trail – wagon wheels carved trough

When we got back to the White Oak Ridge trail, we decided to take the side cut to the lakefront, and we’re really glad we did. The most spectacular scenery in the entire park was along the north edge of the lakefront, where none of the trails went!

View along the North shore where we ventured off trail

Very unique rock on the shore

There were interesting clay banks that reminded us of scuba diving in Colpoys Bay, Ontario, contrasting with the red banks of the soil. We were so glad that we ventured off the trail to see this area, even though it meant we had a long walk back on the road to get to the campground.

Incredible clay and red soil cliff

This concludes our Texas State Park adventure this year. We hope you’ve enjoyed this short glimpse of the parks we visited and will add Texas to your travel list with your LTV. We know we’ll return to try out other Texas State Parks and revisit our favorites.

Editor’s Note: This post is written by a member of LTV’s sponsored content team, The Leisure Explorers. Do you own a Leisure Travel Van and enjoy writing? Learn more about joining the team.

In part one of this series, we covered 11 Central Texas State Parks, and in this one, we’ll cover the other 11 that we visited.

Pedernales Falls State Park

Our next park was Pedernales Falls State Park which has lots of hiking trails and some very challenging mountain biking trails in Juniper Ridge. This park is popular on weekends, so we booked four nights during the week. When we first checked in, the site we had booked had a 5-degree slope, so luckily, the ranger was able to move us to a more level site.

The falls had just a trickle of water flowing over them, and some people call it horizontal falls because the water flows across and down the carved limestone. They have a lookout viewing area, but to truly see and experience it, you need to scramble down the rocks and wander around to see where the water has carved the rocks and to see all the fossils in the limestone. You need to make sure there is no flooding risk if it rains prior to your visit.

When you are in this area, you need to be sure to visit the LBJ State Park and Historic Site (which we did), but another LTV Explorer covered this in a recent article, so we won’t duplicate anything.

Guadalupe River State Park

Our next park was Guadalupe River State Park. If possible, you should try to visit this park on a weekend because it is connected to Honey Creek State Natural Area. Volunteers do a guided hike to see this protected area on Saturday mornings (book in advance).

Honey Creek State Natural Area

In this park the main things to see are the Bald Cypress Trail and the Swallow Cliffs but if you do some of the other trails you are likely to see lots of armadillos. The Honey Creek guided walk takes about three hours and the volunteers share a lot of information on this beautiful, protected area.

Bald Cypress Trail

Swallow Cliffs along Guadalupe River

We had booked to go to South Llano River State Park next, but a major ice event was about to hit Texas, and we were worried about driving, so we canceled our reservation and headed south to San Antonio to avoid the weather. We stayed a few days at an RV park to get some necessary laundry done and then went to a Harvest Host winery. The ice event was quite bad, with school closures and many accidents on the highways.

Lost Maples State Natural Area

After things thawed out, we went to Lost Maples State Natural Area. This natural area is one of the few places left in Texas that still has maple trees, and they are Uvalde Bigtooth Maples that don’t produce syrup and have very small leaves. This park must be incredibly busy in the fall when the leaves are changing colors. There are several good hiking trails, but it is advised to have hiking poles as the trails are rocky and have a fair amount of elevation gain. The interesting features are Monkey Rock, the Grotto, and some crystal-clear springs.

Monkey Rock

Grotto

Spring fed pond

Garner State Park

From Lost Maples, to get to Garner State Park, you take Texas FM/RM 337 (Farm to Market or Ranch to Market) from Vanderpool to Leakey. Unknown to us at the time, it’s famous for its switchbacks and has been called one of the most scenic drives in Texas, not that the driver has the chance to notice the scenery!

Texas FM/RM 337

Garner State Park is not the largest State Park in Texas, but it gets the most visitors, over a million last year!  Since it was off-season, the park wasn’t busy at all. It seemed strange going from a park with 30 campsites to one with 513. Again, this park has lots of hiking and mountain biking trails with varying difficulty levels; poles and hiking boots are recommended. When we book into state parks, we usually look at the trail maps first, and then we can decide how many nights we need to book to complete the trails. We spent four nights in Garner and enjoyed seeing Old Baldy from the bottom and the top and seeing Crystal Cave.

Fisherman in the Frio River with a reflection of Old Baldy

View from the top of Old Baldy

View out from Crystal Cave

They have several interesting CCC structures, including a pavilion with an outdoor dance area, and they still hold dances during their peak season.

Sharon dancing by the Pavillion

Kickapoo Cavern State Park

Kickapoo Cavern State Park offers a cave tour on the weekends.  The tour is popular, so you should pre-book as they only take ten people each Saturday.

Kickapoo Cavern entrance

Kickapoo Cavern is a dead cave (meaning the formations are not continuing to grow), but the size of the formations is incredible, and they date back 4 million years! Just be aware that this tour is very physical. You need to wear a helmet, carry a flashlight, and scramble over rocks in the dark for 2 hours in a humid environment. However, if you can handle this, it’s worthwhile. The park also has several other trails you can hike and/or mountain bike on, so give this tiny park a go.

Formations

Columns that were eight stories tall

In season the Mexican free-tailed bats fly in and out of Stuart Cave. They weren’t back yet for the season, but we could smell they had been there.

Stuart Bat Cave

Seminole Canyon State Park

Seminole Canyon State Park was a repeat park for us, but we enjoyed it and wanted to return. This park is along the Rio Grande River and has canyon rim trails for hiking and mountain biking.

Canyon Rim Trail

There are also guided tours of the Fate Bell Shelter pictograph area (book in advance). The pictographs date from 4200 years old to the youngest at 1500 years old. The ranger had a laser pointer and described what the researchers believed the paintings meant.

Fate Bell Shelter

We stayed an extra day as they were trying a new ranger-led tour called Van-tastic which gave you the history of the Southern Railroad that was built in 1883 and only operated for 10 years, and you saw some more modern-day pictographs.

Shaman with people moving around him

Bread oven used when the railroad was built

Big Bend Ranch State Park

On a prior trip, we had gone to Big Bend National Park, so this time, we decided to go to Big Bend Ranch State Park. Most people drive through this park on River Road when they are going to or coming from the National Park.

View along River Road

Along River Road, we stopped to do the Closed Canyon and Hoodoos trails.

Closed Canyon

Hoodoos

We had booked a non-service site that was 32 kilometers along a dirt road (it took 1.5 hours to cover this distance) in the center of Big Bend Ranch State Park. They called it an equestrian site because it was big enough to park the horse trailers, and it had pens from the earlier ranching days. The dirt road was a washboard surface and got quite narrow in spots, so this adventure would not be for everyone.

Dirt road into our campsite at Big Bend Ranch SP

However, the mountains and desert surrounding the campsite were very peaceful, and the star gazing at night was phenomenal as this is an International Dark Sky Park.

Sunset at our campsite in Big Bend Ranch SP

We would see the park rangers each day as they came in and out from the visitor center further along the dirt road. When you do hikes in this park, you need to be very cognizant of the sun and hydration, as there is almost no shade. We did about 11 kilometers of hiking each day, and that was about our limit. Luckily our campsite had a very good shelter so we could rest in the afternoons. We saw lots of javelinas and mule deer in the park and some border patrol horses going to do a trail ride.

Hiking Rancho Viejo trail

Ojito Adentro spring and waterfall

For Leaton State Historic Site

Once back on the real pavement, we went west to Presidio and Fort Leaton State Historic Site. This site is one of the largest and finest historic adobe structures in Texas. The fort was a trading post on the US-Mexico Border in the 1800s. Juana Pedrasa and Ben Leaton established the trading post in 1848 with their three children and Ben’s partner John Burgess.

Fort Leaton State Historic Site

Adobe walls, damaged fireplace, Ocotillo branch ceilings

There were some journals that described several murders that took place between 1851, when Ben suddenly passed away, and 1872 when the Burgesses managed the fort, and they continued to manage it until 1927. It deteriorated over time as the railway eventually became the trading route, so Fort Leaton became unneeded. Texas State Parks acquired the fort in 1967 and did extensive restoration work, which was completed in 1978. There was a short video on the history of the fort and some exhibits and then we did a self guided tour of the various rooms and the grounds.

Dining Room with the chapel of atonement at the end due to the murders that took place here

The most interesting and unique artifact was the Carreta wagon in the corral area. The Spanish brought these carts to the U.S. region in 1590, and a fully loaded Carreta would need 10 to 12 oxen to pull it!

Joel pulling the Carreta

David Mountains State Park

Our next stop was Davis Mountains State Park. We had been in this area on a prior trip and had seen Fort Davis and the Observatory but wanted to do some hiking in the park.

On the first day, we did a shorter trail and had hoped to see the 1935 CCC-built Indian Lodge, but unfortunately, they had closed it for renovations.

View of the closed (for renovations) Indian Lodge below

That afternoon we went to the interpretive center and saw the Ranger’s excellent presentation on park critters. The next day we hiked across the highway, where we completed the 700-foot ascent on Limpia Creek and Sheep Canyon Pen Trails to reach the Vista connector to the overlook and the park’s highest point, 5700 feet.  The winds were incredibly strong at the top (40 miles-per-hour gusts), so we didn’t stay there too long enjoying the view.

Vista Overlook 5700′

Balmorhea State Park

We were hoping to stay at Balmorhea State Park, but the campsites were closed for renovation; however, we could still go swimming in the San Solomon Spring. Nearly 15 million gallons of water flow daily from the spring into the pool. In 1935, the CCC built the 2-acre swimming pool that used 30,000 square feet of hand-finished local limestone rock.  There are fish (Pecos Gambusia and Catfish) and soft-shelled turtles in the pool (one turtle was close to 2’ long); the fish nip at your skin. The outlet from the pool flows into a canal system and down to a lake and is used for irrigation by the farmers in the area.

Balmorhea State Park pool

Outflow from the pool to the canal system

Franklin Mountains State Park

We headed west, and when we reached El Paso, we took the 375-ring road so we could go to Franklin Mountains State Park. They only have five non-service RV sites, so we were lucky to get a booking.

Reverse sunset from our campsite in Franklin Mountains

Franklin Mountains is the largest urban park in the United States (28 times bigger than Central Park in New York). One of the unique things about this park is that it is one of the only places in the Chihuahuan Desert where you can see the Southwestern Barrel Cactus.

Southwestern Barrel Cactus–the top always points south

We decided to hike the Aztec Caves Trail with the plan to take a connector to get to the Mundy’s Gap Overlook, but it was a very difficult rock scramble with no signs telling you where to go. Eventually, we made it to the Overlook with an incredible 360 view. We contemplated going to the top of Franklin Mountain, but unfortunately, the winds were gusting to 80 kilometers per hour, making it challenging to stay on the trail, so we returned to our campsite.

View looking west from Aztec Caves

On the morning we were leaving, we woke up to snow-covered peaks! We would like to return to this park to do more of the hiking trails but without the snow!

Snowy Franklin Mountains from our campsite

This concludes our 22 Texas State Park journey, but there are lots of other parks in Texas to visit on future trips. This last photo was a poster that shows in rough position the State Parks across Texas. We hope you have found this series helpful for your future travels.

Texas State Parks

Editor’s Note: This post is written by a member of LTV’s sponsored content team, The Leisure Explorers. Do you own a Leisure Travel Van and enjoy writing? Learn more about joining the team.

We have owned our Unity Island Bed for almost seven years now, and we’ve recognized that everyone has a different travel style. We mainly like to visit state, provincial, and national parks because we figure the park is there to protect something special, and we’d like to find out what is special about that location. The reasons for the parks vary from geologic uniqueness to historical reasons to outdoor activities like hiking and mountain biking. If this is similar to your travel style, you will likely enjoy this story.

As snowbirds, we were trying to find places in the south to visit this year, and we decided to spend more time in Texas to visit some of the state parks. In a three-month span from December through the end of February, we visited 22 Texas state parks.

Texas State Parks have an informative website as well as a mobile app you can use when offline, and they even have a booklet with all the park info and a map of all the park locations. If you do plan to visit Texas State Parks, the best investment you can make is to buy the annual Texas State Park pass.  When we booked our first reservation online (no reservation fees are charged, which is nice), we added the park pass to our account, and it automatically applied all the discounts to this and to future reservations. In 2022/2023, the pass only cost $70 USD, and in essence, we saved more than that in the first week. The pass saves you all the park day use fees, and your second night of camping in each park is half-price. We averaged around $16 USD per night to stay at the parks with electric and water hookups, which we felt was a pretty good deal!

Sea Rim State Park

We started on the eastern side of Texas with Sea Rim State Park, which was right along the gulf coast. If you enjoy beach locations, this is a great park to visit. One day we rode our mountain bikes 7 kilometers east and then returned. Another day we rode 9 kilometers west along the beach and then returned.

Riding along Sea Rim beach

They also have the Gambusia Nature Trail in the park, which goes through the swamp/marsh area, but it was damaged in one of the hurricanes, and they were rebuilding it, so it was closed when we were there. The only issue with this park was that we got abnormally warm weather when we were there in early December, and the mosquitoes were bad at the campsites. Thankfully on the beach, there weren’t any, so we spent a lot of time there.

Sea Rim sunset

Galveston Island State Park

After a short ferry ride, we reached Galveston Island State Park. This park has campsites on the bay and the gulf side, and we had stayed on the bay side the last time, so this time, we booked on the gulf side. It’s a short walk to the beach, and whether you go east or west, you will find lots of housing developments, very different than Sea Rim.

Housing developments along Galveston Island Beach

We walked along the beach one day, rode our bikes to Isla del Sol another, and then did a ride on the trails on the bay side another day. The bayside also had a fair number of mosquitoes as it had rained that morning, and they were all out looking for a meal.

Roseate Spoonbill on the Bay side of Galveston Island

Goose Island State Park

Next along the coast is Goose Island State Park, which does have campsites along the water, but there is no beach. When we were there, it was duck hunting season, so you will hear the airboats going out very early in the morning. There are also a lot of fishing charters that leave from the state park dock. This means you will see lots of Pelicans as they try to get scraps left behind.

Pelicans near Goose Island dock

One of the most interesting things to do in this park is see “The Big Tree.” The tree was named the Texas State Champion Virginia Live Oak in 1969 and held that title until 2003, when a larger tree was found in Brazoria County. Recent estimates show the tree is close to 2,000 years old, and it has a circumference of over 35 feet, a height of 45 feet, and the spread of the crown is 90 feet!

The Big Tree

Another fascinating thing to do is to see the whooping cranes. They fly down from Wood Buffalo National Park in Canada to stay through the winter in a field near the Big Tree. We got incredibly lucky this time as when we rode our bikes by the field, three of them took off, and we got a photo of them in flight!

Whooping Crane fly by

Mustang Island State Park

The quickest route to get to Mustang Island State Park is to take a free short ferry ride across to the town of Port Aransas. Mustang Island was named after the wild horses that came ashore from shipwrecks and Spanish expeditions. Robert Ainsworth Mercer was the first white settler on the island from 1799-1875. The island was abandoned during the civil war as the USS Arthur was stationed to block the Aransas Pass. In the 1920s sportsmen and tourism started to flourish on the island, and by 1929, the ferry was put in place to grow the economy.

Busy Texas beach

The beach was good for walking and shell collecting. We always check with the rangers if there are any programs/events going on while we’re in the park and at Mustang Island they had a guided walk along the beach one day and a water colour painting class the next day.

Lightning Whelk egg capsules in upper left corner

A cold snap came through on our last day at this park, and we actually had to winterize the RV since we were going to have four nights in a row with low 20’s F every night. Luckily, we had brought antifreeze with us from home as it was all sold out in the local stores as people tried to protect their pipes.

Lake Corpus Christi State Park

Moving inland to Lake Corpus Christi State Park, this was the first park on this trip where we saw some of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) work. Franklin D. Roosevelt established the CCC during the Great Depression as a way for single men between 18 and 25 to enlist in work programs to improve America’s public lands, forests, and parks.

At Lake Corpus Christi, they built the building nicknamed “The Castle” (circa 1934-1935) with a great view over the lake. The original design called for sandstone blocks, but the source was over 20 miles away, so to save money, they created blocks from concrete mixed with caliche (calcium in the local soil).

The kiln used to make the blocks

CCC Pavillion – The Castle

During our stay, we walked all the trails in the park and saw lots of wildlife, including white-tailed Deer, great blue herons, white herons, egrets, cardinals, and leaf-cutter ants, and the coolest thing we saw were green jays. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a picture of them, they are usually found in Mexico and South America, but they also come to this area of Texas. The other cool thing we saw was the caterpillar of a pipevine swallowtail butterfly. We hoped it found a warm place to survive the cold, as we saw it on the first day before the temperature dropped 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) in 4 hours!

Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillar

Goliad State Park and Historic Site

Goliad State Park and Historic Site have the Mission Espiritu Santo and the birthplace of General Ignacio Zaragoza. We were in the Jacales Campground, so we walked the San Antonio River trail to see the Mission Espiritu Santo.

Mission Espiritu Santo

After touring the church, we went through the museum exhibits and around the grounds. There were two volunteers on the mission premises, and they were incredibly knowledgeable to answer any of the questions we had. Here are some of the key things we learned:

• Mission Espiritu Santo was established by the Spanish to defend its territory and convert the Native groups, Cujanes, Karankawa, Jaranames, and Tamiques, in hopes that they would help defend Spanish territory. It was moved to its current location along the San Antonio River in 1749, as this location was better for trade routes.
• In 1758 about 180 people resided at the Mission and Fort, mainly living in Jacales, which were crude clay-plastered brush huts thatched with grass. The surrounding area was good for grazing lands and fertile fields.
• The Columbian Exchange, sometimes called the Grand Exchange, is one of the most important events in history. It was the exchange of goods and ideas between the Old World and the New World. It started in 1492 when Christopher Columbus arrived in North America. Before the Columbian Exchange, there were no oranges in Florida, no bananas in Ecuador, no paprika in Hungary, no zucchini in Italy, no pineapples in Hawaii, no rubber trees in Africa, no cattle in Texas, no chili peppers in Thailand and India, no cigarettes in France, and no chocolate in Switzerland!
• Mission Espiritu Santo officially closed in 1830, and the last Spanish priests withdrew from Mexican Texas. For over 100 years, the mission had served an important role in the development of early Texas.
• In 1932 Goliad County deeded the land to the state for a park, and from 1936-1939 the CCC partially restored the Mission.

On another day, we walked over to the birthplace of General Ignacio Zaragoza and the Presidio La Bahia Fort and church, one of the most fought-over sites in Texas.

Birthplace of Ignacio Zaragoza

Presidio La Bahia was established along the San Antonio River in 1749 and was the location for the first major Texas cattle drive from 1779-1782. On May 5, 1862, a battle occurred in Puebla, Mexico, when General Ignacio Zaragoza led 4000 poorly armed men and defeated the French forces of Napoleon III, who had 8000 soldiers. This heroic victory gave Mexico its great national patriotic anniversary, “El Cinco de Mayo.”

Presidio La Bahia

Choke Canyon State Park

After a stop in the historic town of Goliad to look around, we went to Choke Canyon State Park.

Historic Goliad

The campsites were very separated in this park which we liked, but we had issues with wasps. The weather had gotten warmer, so we had our fans open, and they filled up with wasps. Eventually, we had to dismantle them and clean all of the dead wasps out. You never know what issues you’ll have to deal with when RVing.

Choke Canyon Campsite

Sharon was under the weather at this park, so we didn’t do too much hiking, but we did see some javelinas. There were lots of duck hunters and fishermen out on the lake.

2 javelina’s

Sunset at Choke Canyon

Palmetto State Park

A friend had told us about Palmetto State Park, so we decided to check it out. There are only a small number of electric sites, so we settled for a non-service site. Our campsite was close to the low crossing point of the San Marcos River, so we went across to see the 1935 CCC-built Refectory (a communal place for meals). It was cool how they had built the walls up like it was coming straight out of the ground. Originally the roof was thatched with 35,000 palmetto leaves from the park.

Blanco SP – 1935 CCC Refectory

This park is unique due to the dwarf Palmetto plants that aren’t found anywhere else in central Texas. We did the Palmetto Interpretative Trail and another unique feature was the 1936 ram jet pump system used to fill the water tower. It doesn’t use any electricity and instead uses the force of the rising column of water from the artesian well to send the water to the cistern on the top of the water tower, and it’s still operating today! On another day, we rode our mountain bikes on the other trails and back to the park office so we could get Wi-Fi (the park doesn’t have cell coverage).

Water Tower and cistern

San Marcos River crossing

Lockhart State Park

The weekends are hard to get bookings in Texas State Parks, so we went to three different Harvest Host locations and then to Lockhart State Park on Monday. This was the first time on this trip we had another LTV camped a few sites away.

This park has a golf course, so if you’re a golfer, this is a great place to visit. We hiked all the trails and saw more of the CCC history.

Water Tower and where the hilltop’s first golf tee was – at one point highest tee-off anywhere in Texas

Lockhart SP – CCC Dam

The town of Lockhart is considered the BBQ capital of Texas, so there are lots of places to get your fill of BBQ. Our favorite was Terry Black’s.

Terry Black’s BBQ

McKinney Falls State Park

North of Lockhart was McKinney Falls State Park on the southern edge of Austin. This park is famous for the Upper and Lower Falls.

McKinney Upper Falls

We also found the Rock Shelter Trail between them quite interesting as it had a 100-foot tall, 500-year-old Bald Cypress tree called Old Baldy, and the Rock Shelter was used by the Native Americans over 8000 years ago.

Old Baldy Cypress Tree

Rock shelter

We also spent a couple of days mountain biking on the other trails to see the old McKinney Homestead and the Williamson Creek area. This park truly has a lot of beautiful things to see, so that you can spend several days here.

McKinney Homestead 1849

Williamson Creek

Blanco State Park

Next, we drove west through the Dripping Springs area towards Blanco State Park. There are 32 breweries, wineries, and distilleries in this area, so there are lots of places to stop and do some tastings. Blanco State Park is small, but it has a pretty location along the Blanco River and is close to the town of Blanco for restaurants and shops.

Blanco River

The park has some CCC remnants and a couple of short trails. In Blanco, we liked the wood buffalo products, gelato, and cheese at Oro Bianco Italian Creamery.

Blanco SP – CCC dam and pool

Oro Bianco Italian Creamery

This will conclude Part 1 of our Texas State Park journey, and we’ll cover 11 additional parks in Part 2. We would love to know if you’re looking for additional information on the parks we shared.

Editor’s Note: This post is written by a member of LTV’s sponsored content team, The Leisure Explorers. Do you own a Leisure Travel Van and enjoy writing? Learn more about joining the team.

As snowbirds, Sharon and I are often in need of finding paths to take us south to warmer climates. We hadn’t had the opportunity to travel south for the last two years due to COVID, so we decided to leave earlier this year than usual. Since the weather cooperated, we spent a week traveling through Kentucky. We found some fantastic locations and would like to return to spend more time in the state.

For our first day of driving south from Ontario, we selected a Harvest Host, which was a farm in Kentucky called Steeple View Farm. The host was extremely particular about his directions, and he asked us to call him when we were 1 hour away and then call again when we exited from the Interstate so he could give us detailed directions to find his place. We had no problem finding the place and had a nice sunset from our campsite. The following morning, we connected with the host so we could buy some farm products (the bourbon peach jalapeno pepper jelly was excellent).

Harvest Host in Kentucky

Sunset view from our campsite

Steepleview products we purchased

With all the bourbon they used in their products, we figured we should go find a bourbon distillery. We took a very scenic drive to the capital of Kentucky, Frankfort, where we went to the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Buffalo Trace is a national historic landmark and is the oldest continually operating distillery in America. We had no idea it was such a popular spot, maybe because they do free tastings!

We were told the tours book a month in advance, so we just did a tasting instead of doing one of the tours. We tried a vodka, three bourbons, a bourbon cream, and a root beer. They also had us save some bourbon cream to mix with the root beer to create a root beer float! They also gave a sample of their bourbon chocolate; Sharon managed to get my bourbon chocolate and an extra one from the host. My favorite was the Eagle Rare 10-Year-old Bourbon, but unfortunately, they had sold out in the gift store, so I couldn’t buy a bottle. The distillery is coming close to its 8,000,000^th barrel filled since prohibition, and they were also one of only 2 distilleries authorized to make “medicinal” whiskey during prohibition!

Buffalo Trace Distillery

Our tasting

Close to 8,000,000 barrels filled

We decided to make a quick stop at My Old Kentucky Home State Park to have lunch. The best part of owning a Leisure Travel Van is that you can eat lunch anywhere. There is a mansion that was built between 1795 and 1818 in this park. The home was also the inspiration for the state song of Kentucky, “My Old Kentucky Home,” by Stephen Collins Foster in 1853. Due to timing, we didn’t take the guided tour inside the home, but we did walk around the grounds and see the old spring pump house. Judge John Rowan owned the home and was a senator who led amendments to the US judicial system and ended imprisonment for debt.

My Old Kentucky Home State Park

Original pump house

Fall colors

Continuing on, we visited Mammoth Cave National Park, and when we arrived, we got a nonservice campsite for 3 nights. Our nighttime temperatures were in the 50s and the daytime was in the 70’s so we really didn’t need hookups. After everything was set up, we walked over to see what cave tours we could book. Unfortunately, the 4-hour Grand Tour was already booked for the next 4 days so we opted for the 2-hour historical tour the next morning and the Wondering Woods tour in the afternoon.

Mammoth Cave is the worlds longest cave, with currently 426 miles (685 kilometers) of passageways mapped and they believe they will find even more connections. It’s very different than what you imagine as a cave because the sandstone layer on the top stops the water from dripping through the limestone to form stalagmites and stalactites. Instead, the underground water carves out long passageways of various shapes. After viewing the exhibits in the visitor’s center, we headed back to our campsite and on the way saw one of the last trains that used to bring people to the caves starting in 1886 (it ran for 50 years) and some deer foraging for dinner.

Visitor Center

Mammoth Cave is the longest cave in the world

Original railroad engine and car

Our 2-hour historic tour was listed as moderate difficulty as you had to climb 540 stairs (the ranger said it was equivalent to climbing a 31-story building). Upon booking, we didn’t know that they had sold out the tour, so there were close to 140 people! It was truly a ridiculous number to try to keep together. If you stopped to take photos, you would get shuffled to the back and we were literally running to catch up with the group in the next area where the ranger did his historic talks. We talked to some other people who had done the tour the previous day in the afternoon and had only 30 people on it, so later in the day tours might be better. Here are some of the facts we learned about the cave:

• In the Rotunda area, there were saltpeter production hoppers used from 1798 through 1815. Saltpeter was a key ingredient for making gunpowder.
• We saw the huge boulder named Giant’s Coffin, which is 175′ below the surface.
• Native Americans 4500 years ago used river cane torches to explore the cave.
• A visitor described fat Man’s Misery (264′ below the surface) in 1866 as “a tortuous rift, a snake in convolution and an avenue of torture in ruggedness, narrowness, and lowness. It would perplex a groundhog.”
• In 1842, Dr. John Croghan set up a sanitorium in the cave, thinking the environment could cure Tuberculosis, but it failed, so it was closed in 1843.
• There are 8 species of bats in the caves; we believe the ones we saw were Little Brown Bats. The population has dramatically dropped due to white-nose syndrome.
• Visitors started coming to the cave in 1812, the CCC started building park infrastructure in 1933, and the National Park was established in 1941, in 1981 it was named a World Heritage site, and in 1990 it was named a World Biosphere Reserve.

The cave was different from other caves we had been to but worth visiting.

Entering Mammoth Cave

Rotunda

Saltpeter hoppers

Giant’s Coffin

Fat Man’s Misery passage

Mammoth Cave Dome

Spiral staircase in Mammoth Dome

Flow formations

In the afternoon, we did the Wondering Woods tour. This tour only had 7 people plus the guide, so a much better-sized group. We took a 25-minute bus ride where the guide gave the area’s history, including the cave wars.  In the earlier days, there was a competition to have people tour your specific cave. Later the park service started buying up properties and farms from the locals, and a lot of animosities were created towards the park due to the tactics that were used to obtain the 53,000 acres of land.

This tour has not been offered very long and was just run now due to the closure of one of the other tours. In the cave, we saw another little brown bat and several cave crickets, but the unique part was all the formations in the cave. There were flows, stalactites (c for close to the ceiling), stalagmites (g for growing from the ground), crystal formations, soda straws, and shawls! The other cool thing was that you could see from one end of the cave to the other. On the way back in the bus the guide told us the story of Floyd Collins who was a local cave guide that got stuck in Sand Cave for two weeks but unfortunately perished. It was a national news story at the time.

Wondering Woods Cave flow formations

Shawl formation

Wondering Woods Cave

Floyd Collins history

On our third day at the park, we had perfect weather for our bike ride along the old Mammoth Cave Railroad trail. It was a nice trail but did have a few very steep hills. That’s when you take the opportunity to enjoy nature and hike your bike up the hill .

One of the first overlooks was Doyle Valley which was just on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains, so it created quite a challenge for the railway. They built a trestle in 1886, and it was finally demolished in 1961. This valley was mainly farmland before the park reverted it to a forest.

Our next stop was Sloan’s Crossing Pond which was a depression in the sandstone layer above Mammoth Cave where the water could pool, creating a wetland. We passed by the Dripping Springs Escarpment, where you could see the layers of sandstone and limestone, and then proceeded down a really long hill (down is fun, up not so much) until we went by Diamond Caverns. We finally made it to the entrance sign and carried on to Park City so we could see the ruins of Bell’s Tavern, where we had lunch. Then we retraced our route all the way back to the campground for a total of 28 kilometers (17 miles).

Mammoth Cave Railroad bike trail

Doyle Valley overlook

Sloan’s Crossing Pond

Made it back to the entrance

Bell’s Tavern history

Bell’s Tavern ruins

The next destination was Land Between Two Lakes, but on the way, we stopped in Central City, Kentucky, to get some groceries, and we found out the town had an Everly Brothers monument. Since Sharon’s Dad liked the Everly Brothers, we decided to get some photos at the monument.

Still, then it had a really good small museum with musical artifacts about the Everly Brothers, Merle Travis, Jim Walker, and John Prine, all of who were from the area. The museum was in an old car dealership. The music museum is in the front/sales area, and some historical cars are in the garage bays. It was definitely worth the stop, especially since the host was extremely friendly and gave us all kinds of stories about the area.

Everly Brothers monument

Smith car

High Roller II Monster Truck

Our primary reason for going to Land Between The Lakes was that they had some mountain bike trails for us to check out. When we arrived at the North Visitor Centre, we found out they were closed on Mondays, so we backtracked to the Nickell Branch Campground and found a spectacular campsite by the lake, which was only $10 per night!

Since the time fell back on the weekend, it was dark when I was BBQing, our salmon for dinner. I was confused because I could see this really bright light that seemed to be coming along the shore from the south of us, and it turned out it was a large tugboat pushing a 3 by 5 grouping of barges in front of it. They had a big spotlight shining toward the front so the captain could see the front of the first set of barges. In the total dark, he maneuvered everything through the canal to the north of us! I’ve included a nighttime shot which wasn’t too great, but also a daytime one, as we saw many other barges over our 2-night stay here.

Land Between Two Lakes – Nickell Branch campsite

Tugboat and barge at night

Tugboat and barge in the daytime

The main mountain bike trail in the park was the full Canal Loop, so we started off the next morning on the 21-kilometer (13-mile) route. The trail is a single-track trail listed as moderate to difficult. We found the sections on the east side of the main road moderate and the sections on the west side difficult.

We started off with lots of switchbacks, and the rocks and roots were a little tricky to see due to the fallen leaves. We went along the canal and under the bridge, and on the west side, we encountered many up and downhill sections. Of course, the downhill I found fun, but the hike a bike up hills, not so much. Our lunch was enjoyed looking over Kentucky Lake, and we even saw another barge go by. The trail eventually circled back by the North Visitor Centre, then crossed the road and returned to moderate difficulty. We saw young eagles, turkey vultures, rabbits, armadillos, deer, and many grey squirrels. Overall, an excellent MTB loop.

Mountain Biking the full Canal Loop

Crossing under the Canal bridge

Lunch stop on Kentucky Lake

Before leaving Kentucky, we drove the entire distance of Land Between Two Lakes (LBL) and around the Elk and Bison Prairie enclosure but only saw 3 bison and a bunch of wild turkeys. We quickly visited the main visitor center and then stopped to see the Great Western Furnace (many of them in the LBL) used to make Iron Ore. We also saw some bison in the distance, so we went down a side road and saw a bunch of them really close up.

Furnace history

Great Western Furnace

Bison paddock

We barely dented Kentucky with our short visit, but it makes us want to head back to spend more time there. The weather was starting to be colder, so we had to get further south to avoid winterizing the RV. Definitely recommend you add Kentucky to your travel bucket list.

From Tuesday, May 24 through to Friday, May 27, the Ontario Sunrisers LTV Chapter held their Spring Rally at Rideau Acres Campground in Kingston, Ontario. This was the largest Ontario Sunrisers Rally held in the 25 years the chapter has been around. 35 RVs were in attendance, including 14 RVs attending their very first Rally. On Tuesday we arrived and had a check-in process followed by a meet and greet game where participants tried to fill in a question sheet to enter for prize draws.  That evening we had a campfire and needed to keep expanding the circle as people joined and we talked about our RVing experiences.

Joel ready to check everyone in

Tuesday Night campfire

Since the weather was supposed to be nicer on Wednesday, we had changed our itinerary around making this a very busy day. We started off with coffee and conversation and thanks to a special funding allotment from LTV, we were able to hire a non-profit group, The Rideau Roundtable, to bring their 34’ Voyageur Canoes to the campground so we could have groups paddle on the Rideau Canal (a National Historic Site in Canada) to the Kingston Mills Locks station and back. The guides gave us the history of the area, talked about the flora and fauna, and explained the operation of the locks. We had 2 canoes go out in the morning and another 2 go in the afternoon to give everyone a chance to try this truly unique experience. Following the afternoon tour, Andrea the tour guide gave a detailed talk on the wildlife in the Rideau Canal and more about voyageur history in the area. That evening we had a catered dinner in the campground hall with BBQ chicken kababs, caesar salad, and rice followed by a special 25^th Anniversary cake. After dinner, we stayed in the hall to watch an RV movie called Lost in America.

Morning coffee

Boat 1

Boat 2

Drone shot of morning canoes

Ready to enter Kingston Mills Locks

Entering Lock 46

Boat 2 in Lock 46

Departing Lock 46 after being lowered

Lock 47

Lock 48 with train passing over

How a lock works

Boat 3

Boat 4

Afternoon boats departing

Learning about the plants in the marsh

Boat 4 in Lock 46

Filling Lock 48

Mute Swan family

Andrea gives her table top presentation

Dinner in the hall

Dinner in the hall

BBQ Chicken, Caesar Salad, and Rice

25th Anniversary Cake

Thursday morning started off with coffee and conversation followed by taking our group photo. Around 10:30 we started a group hike around the exterior trail of the campground and up to the top of the lookout trail. In the afternoon 5 of us decided to try out frisbee golf for the first time and we got lots of exercise chasing down our frisbees, beware don’t let them fly into the muddy marsh area. That evening some people decided to leave early due to the impending rain while others enjoyed another campfire and more conversation.

Campsites

Campsites

Ontario Sunrisers group shot

Mute Swans along the waterfront trail

Group hike

View from the lookout

Group photos from the lookout

Frisbee Golf

Thursday campfire

Thursday campfire

Ontario Sunrisers 2022 Spring Rally

The rain did come through the evening which made packing up the next morning a bit more difficult. We skipped the Friday morning coffee as it was too wet to set everything up outside. We said our final goodbyes and were happy that everyone seemed to enjoy this largest Ontario Sunrisers rally so far. We have a drone video of our campsites courtesy of Dave Abbey.

Our Fall Rally will be at the end of September in Prince Edward County. Safe travels wherever your LTV takes you.

Written by: Joel Smith

Editor’s Note: Joel Smith and Sharon Person are members of LTV’s sponsored content team, The Leisure Explorers. Do you own a Leisure Travel Van and enjoy writing? Learn more about joining the team.

About Us

Sharon and I met at the University of Waterloo when we were taking our Mathematics degrees. We worked in the Information Technology field in Toronto and have now retired to South Bruse Peninsula in Ontario. We retired in our 50’s so we could enjoy traveling while we are healthy. We are avid outdoor people and participate in hiking, mountain biking, scuba diving, and in the winter cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and fat-tire bike riding. A few years ago, we purchased a Komo bike carrier so that we could take our mountain and fat-tire bikes with us more often.

Our Komo bike carrier

We are also active volunteers in our local community through a cottage association and through the Women’s Insititute. I am also the chapter head for the Ontario Sunrisers LTV group and write articles as an LTV Explorer. Our information technology skills are very beneficial for these volunteer areas. I have family in Ontario and Sharon has family in Manitoba and Alberta and our LTV is useful for visiting our family.

A Deep Dive Into Our Travels

When Sharon was a kid, her dad bought an old bread truck and converted it into a camper. From an early age, she decided that she would someday own an RV. She jokes that this was the first Wonder built in Manitoba since it was a Wonder bread truck.

When I had graduated from university, I backpacked around Europe for four months. When Sharon graduated, she did the same for two months. After working for a few years, we decided to quit our jobs and go backpacking around the world for an entire year. We spent time in Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Greece, and France. A fair portion of that trip was camping in our 2-person tent which began our love for camping and traveling.

While we were working, our traveling mainly consisted of scuba diving trips. We managed to go to 39 different diving destinations around the world.

After we retired, we started researching RVs and were quickly attracted to the very high quality of the LTV products. On one family visit to Winnipeg, we drove out to Winkler to get a tour of the factory with Dean. We then decided that the LTV quality was exactly what we were looking for and wanted.

At first, we were attracted to the Unity Murphy Bed but eventually decided that we liked the Island Bed better because of the separate living areas and the additional storage. When we ordered, we opted for RV pickup at the factory (when it was still an option) and that turned out to be a great decision since the orientation for first-time RVers was phenomenal.

Our RV Lifestyle

In our six years of ownership, we have put on about 90,000 km (55,923 mi) in our RV. It would be much higher if the pandemic had not occurred. Our primary usage is traveling as snowbirds to the southern United States in the November through April time period. Although we also did a 21,000 km (13,048 mi) to the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Alaska which all was done mostly on gravel roads. We even reached the Arctic Ocean on this trip!

We prefer to stay in National, Provincial, and State Parks whenever possible. Staying in these parks lets us do lots of hiking and enjoy the nature that parks are there to preserve.

I document our trips and photos through a personal travel blog as well as through blog posts as an LTV Explorer.

The majority of our travels have been longer trips and in fact, in 2019-2020, we actually lived in our RV for 11 out of 12 months prior to the pandemic hitting. The second major usage for us has been trips to Winnipeg to visit family and to enjoy the beautiful scenery around Lake Superior.

What we have liked about traveling in an RV is that it’s a comfortable place to stay in spectacular nature locations. It also provides us the ability to go where we want, when we want.

How RVing Has Impacted Our Lives

Our LTV has allowed us to explore a lot more areas across Canada and the United States. It has also facilitated our snowbird lifestyle to warmer climates for the winter months. We do still like winter activities, so during the pandemic time period we took advantage of being home but we are also hoping we can get back to multi-month trips to the southern United States soon.

Owning an LTV also allowed us to become the Ontario Sunrisers chapter heads. This has allowed us to meet a large number of like-minded people at our rallies and to establish new friendships along the way.

Favorite Travel Destinations

The Dempster Highway

The Dempster Highway is a 900 km (559 mi) gravel road that goes through spectacular scenery from the Yukon into the Northwest Territories of Canada and all the way up to the Arctic Ocean. You can read more about this highway in my article called The Dempster Highway.

North Shore of Lake Superior

We have traveled this route many times on our trips to Winnipeg and always find beautiful scenery. The beauty of this route is talked about in my article called Lake Superior Fall Colours.

Chiricahua National Monument, Arizona

We really didn’t know anything about this park but we saw it on our map and decided it was worth stopping there. The area is truly unique and you can see additional pictures in our personal blog article here.

Editor’s Note: Joel Smith and Sharon Person are members of LTV’s sponsored content team, The Leisure Explorers. Do you own a Leisure Travel Van and enjoy writing? Learn more about joining the team.

We live in Ontario and have family in Manitoba, so we have driven the Trans Canada Highway around Lake Superior many times and absolutely love the drive. But, if you can time things properly for peak of fall colours, it is truly spectacular. We left Winnipeg in the third week of September and travelled to Rushing River Provincial Park in Ontario where we got our first views of the changing leaves. After dinner, we did a walk around the campground to check things out. This was our first time staying at this park during this season (they normally close earlier).

Dogtooth Lake in Rushing River Provincial Park

Rushing River campsite

The following day we decided to camp at Sioux Narrows Provincial Park which wasn’t very far away, so we spent the morning doing all the hiking trails in Rushing River (6 kms for the Beaver Pond and Granite Knoll trails, 4 kms for the Pine Ridge and Lower Rapids trails). Here are a few fun facts about the Granite Knoll trail:

• The granite knoll is an example of a dry berry batholith, which is a 2.6-billion-year-old rock formation that is very common in the Lake of the Woods area.
• The scratches in the granite show the direction of the glacial advance.
• Rushing water polished the granite, making the smooth rounded hills.
• In this area they have found pottery, flint chips, a copper arrowhead, a musket ball, and small trade beads which help tell the story of the aboriginal people meeting with the European explorers or traders.
• On the granite knoll, we saw lichen and mosses as they are adapted to living on the harsh nutrient poor rock.

It was an excellent day for the hikes!

Beaver Pond Trail

Granite Knoll Trail

Lower Rapids Trail

We decided to continue south on Highway 71, so that we could visit two more provincial parks we hadn’t yet stayed at;  Sioux Narrows (46 kms from Rushing River) and Caliper Lake (56 kms from Sioux Narrows). The great thing about having parks this close together is that you can stay just one night at each and still have ample time to do some hiking. In Sioux Narrows, we explored the Viewpoint Trail north of the beach area. The following day, on the way to Caliper Lake we stopped and did the Boreal Trail near Nestor falls. This trail was listed as moderate difficulty in the Alltrails app, as it covered 7 kms and has an elevation of 181 m. There were some muddy, root covered and rocky sections, so we were glad we had brought our poles along for this hike. Since our nighttime temperatures were mild, we took a non-electric site at Caliper Lake overlooking the lake. It’s a great spot to enjoy a glass of wine and relax after the challenging hike that day. In the Ontario Provincial Parks, oftentimes the nonelectric sites have the prettier views, so it’s always worth asking the ranger what their favourite site is when you check in!

Sioux Narrows Viewpoint Trail

Boreal Trail near Nestor Falls

Caliper Lake campsite

Boreal Trail

Fall colours

Our route continued south on Highway 71, until we reached Highway 11 where we started heading east. Our next stop was Quetico Provincial Park which was a 277 km journey. The nice thing about travelling at this time of year is that the campgrounds are typically not very full, so you can get the best site available and even stay extra nights (like we did at Quetico) to do the hiking trails. We hiked just over 16 kms in Quetico covering French River Portage and Falls Trails, Camp 111, Baptist Creek, and Teaching Trail. The French River Portage was one of the most difficult passages, up until the mid 1800’s, for settlers that were heading west, then improvements were done to the route. The elevation differential from where the French River dropped over the falls and down to the subsequent rivers and lakes was quite significant. We saw a few people on the French River trails but no one was on the other trails we completed. Quetico was a forest preserve from 1909 to 1971 when it became a Wilderness Class Provincial Park.

Fall colours along Highway 11

Toasting our campsite in Quetico

Quetico Trail Map

Reflections on the Beaver Pond

Forest floor

French River Falls

The day we left Quetico, we were travelling 340 kms to Rainbow Falls Provincial Park near Rossport. This campground is very small, so it’s best to reserve a campsite in advance. We selected a nonelectric site right by Lake Superior. Along the drive, we were just blown away by the fall colours with the various shades of yellow and orange. As you get further south, the colours changed towards the red spectrum.

We then took a 22 km (return) side trip to Ouimet Canyon Provincial Park. This Park doesn’t have camping, but the short hike to the canyon is well worth the stop – especially at this time of year. The fall colours were absolutely spectacular and we even got a few glimpses of sunshine peaking through the clouds.

There are two theories about how Ouimet Canyon was formed. It is believed that molten magma created a layer under the surface rocks and then cooled. The first theory says that during the last glacial period, the weight of the ice caused the hardened magma (diabase) to slip 20 to 40 metres east thereby forming the narrow canyon with straight sides. The second theory says that the glacial meltwaters went down a crack and tunnelled through the softer rock below, which eventually collapsed the diabase forming the canyon. Either way, the current canyon walls have vertical joints, so erosion eventually severs off large rocks which build up in the bottom of the canyon. I think you will find these photos breathtaking and you will probably want to add Ouimet Canyon to your travel bucket list. The canyon is beautiful anytime of year, but the fall colours add a whole other layer to the experience. We arrived at Rainbow Falls in time to have dinner and then enjoy a beautiful sunset from our campsite on Lake Superior.

View from Terry Fox Memorial

Ouimet Canyon

Ouimet Canyon from the second viewing platform

Drive from Ouimet Canyon

Fall colours everywhere

Sunset on Lake Superior

We got an early start the next day, as it would be a 432 km day to go from Rainbow Falls to Pancake Bay Provincial Park. This is our favourite section of this drive as it passes through Lake Superior Provincial Park. We had stops at Aguasabon Falls & Gorge, White River to see Winnie the Pooh, and the Old Woman Bay picnic area. The nighttime temperatures were starting to get cooler, so we had selected an electric site at Pancake Bay to run our small plug-in heater.  We’ve found that in many of the Ontario Provincial Parks, the electric post can be a long way away as it’s usually shared among sites.  We have a 25’ 30-amp cord and also a 50’ 30-amp extension cord.  The Park does have some extension cords they will loan you, but they aren’t 30 amp. The beach is very pretty in this park, so we took a walk after dinner.

Aquasabon Falls and Gorge

Winnie the Pooh in White River

Old Woman Bay on Lake Superior

Lake Superior Provincial Park

Beach in Pancake Bay Provincial Park

Our last section of this trip was from Pancake Bay to Chutes Provincial Park, which was 285 kms. Our first stop was at Chippewa Falls and I have included a picture of the falls when we went out to Winnipeg and another one from the way back, so you can see the dramatic difference with the fall colours. In this area they have an easel tour where you can go to the some of the locations that the famous Group of Seven painters did their work (Group of Seven Tour) and Chippewa Falls is one of those locations. Once we arrived in Chutes Provincial Park, we did a couple of hiking trails to see the lower and upper falls.

Near Chippewa Falls

Chippewa Falls on our way to Winnipeg

Chippewa Falls on our return trip!

Example Group of Seven artwork done at Chippewa Falls

Chutes Provincial Park Lower Falls

Chutes Upper Falls

I have included a map of this journey so you will have a better sense of the area we travelled. I would highly recommend this journey at any time but if you can time the trip to see the spectacular fall colours that adds a whole other level of enjoyment. You can certainly see why the Group of Seven Artists loved to paint in this area, especially in the fall.

On our winter snowbird trip, we decided to visit Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (aka Okefenokee Swamp) for two reasons: first, Sharon’s parents had visited it in 1966 and really enjoyed it, and second, we were having trouble getting campsites in the Florida Panhandle state parks in January. We were easily able to book 3 nights on the east side of the Refuge at Okefenokee Pastimes Campground, 4 nights at Laura S. Walker State Park on the north edge, and 3 nights at Stephen C. Foster State Park on the west side. This combination of campgrounds, covering 3 sides of the Refuge, gave us a great way to explore the different habitats. There was a quote I liked on one of the signboards that read, “If you reconnect with nature and wilderness, you will not only find the meaning of life, but you will experience what it means to be truly alive”.

Here are some fun facts about Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge:

• The Refuge was established in 1937 to protect one of the largest fresh water wetlands in the world. It also is a National Natural Landmark and is designated as a Wetland of International Importance.
• The Okefenokee Swamp is the headwaters for the Suwannee and St. Mary’s Rivers.
• The swamp bottom consists of sand covered by peat. Methane gas causes large clumps of this material to float up to the surface. Eventually, plant life will grow on the clumps, which are not solid as they are not anchored. The Native American Indians called this O-ki-fin-o-ke, or “Land of the Trembling Earth”.
• The Refuge covers 354,000 acres (61 km north-south, 40 km east-west) and is 1 of only 21 national wildlife refuges that has additional protection under the Clean Air Act.
• The swamp has many different habitats, including upland forests, scrub-shrub, forested wetlands, prairies (marshes), lakes, and open water.
• Within the Refuge you can find more than 620 different plant species, 230 bird species, 50 mammal species, 40 fish species, 40 amphibian species, and 60 reptile species.
• Cypress trees have adapted to living in the swampy environment and have a life span of 400-500 years. Their wood is very resistant to deterioration and, consequently, in the 1890s there were attempts to drain the swamp to harvest the trees and create farmland. Canals were dug and attempts were made to put in railway tracks. Some early settler families also lived on some of the islands, raising livestock, growing corn and sugar cane, and tapping the pine trees for sap to make turpentine (they would sell this to get money to buy other supplies). Logging took place up until the Great Depression, before the area was declared a National Wildlife Refuge in 1937.
• The former logging canals now act as entry points for the 192 km of boat trails in the Refuge.
• The king of this swamp is of course the American alligator. The mother alligator will guard her nest; no other modern reptile displays this maternal side, but this was common behaviour for dinosaurs, which makes the American alligator seem prehistoric. It is estimated that there are 12,000 alligators in the Refuge!

Okefenokee Pastimes Campground is right at the eastern entrance to the Refuge. It is a small RV park with tightly packed sites, but it was very well-maintained, and we used our Passport America discount, so it was inexpensive. On our first day, we drove the RV into the Refuge and checked out the visitor centre, then took a 90-minute guided boat ride through the swamp. The guide gave us the history of the canal and explained facts about the prairies and forested wetlands, as well as the wildlife. We saw about a dozen alligators, but apparently you see many more when the daytime temperatures are higher (as we witnessed on the west side). We also saw several red-tailed hawks, turkey vultures flying overhead, yellow slider turtles, and a pitcher plant which attracts, traps, and then digests insects as a source of nitrogen! (There are 5 species of insect-eating plants in the United States, and 4 of them grow in this swamp.) 

After the boat ride, we drove along Swamp Island Drive, stopping at the 12 numbered stops to read about the area. We learned about the longleaf pine tree restoration project that is underway. At one time, there were 90 million acres of longleaf pine forests in the southeast, and now there are only 3 million. The forest industry preferred loblolly and pond pines, as the longleaf pine grows much more slowly. Now, loblolly and pond pines are being cut down and replaced with longleaf, in order to take the Refuge back to its natural state.

There was a pond along the drive that had fantastic reflections. The pond was originally dug out to get the sand to make Swamp Island Drive, so people could get to where the Chesser Island Homestead was located.

The swamp settlers were self-sufficient and very industrious people. They grew sugar cane and harvested pine resin to make turpentine to raise cash. They also hunted, kept livestock, tended beehives, and kept gardens. Homesteaders in the area prided themselves on keeping a nice, white, sandy yard. Not only did this act as a fire break, but it also made the 5 venomous snakes of the area visible and kept the bug population down. The Chesser family settled in this area in 1858, and the third-generation homestead building, built in 1927, is still standing.

After seeing the homestead, we walked the boardwalk so we could climb the tower to see the Chesser Prairie and Seagrove Lake. We had to hurry a bit, as they close the gate for Swamp Island Drive at 5 pm, and a ranger was already doing his rounds to make sure everyone was out on time. On the way out, we got some great shots of a very large alligator who was sunning himself along the ditch beside the road. Earlier in the day, we were searching the water for alligators, and here we found one right by the road!

There are several trails in the Refuge, so the next morning, we got out our bikes and ventured out for a 31 km mountain bike ride. The first part of Longleaf Pine Trail was a bit wet, and it continued to get wetter as we proceeded. Swamp Island Drive was not busy, so it made for a very leisurely bike ride while searching out wildlife, and we went back to the Chesser homestead, since we were rushed the night before. We rode Homestead Loop Trail and Ridley’s Island Trail, before meeting up with our friendly alligator again on the way out. Alligators are creatures of habit; they tend to go to the same spots to sun themselves each day.

We saw some white-banded mature longleaf pine trees (at least 60 years old) on Uplands Trail, trees that the red-cockaded woodpeckers depend on. Loss of habitat is the reason this species is endangered. The red-cockaded woodpecker will only use live trees, because once they create their nest area, sap will drip out of the hole. Any predators will get the sap on their body and leave the tree, a good defense mechanism to protect young. We checked out some of the trees but did not see any of these woodpeckers, only the evidence that they were there. We did see several other woodpeckers (and heard lots) while in the Refuge.

To make our way back to the RV park, we used a combination of Canal Diggers and Longleaf Pine mountain bike trails, and the road. It was a long, strenuous day but very enjoyable, with perfect temperatures. 

The following morning, we said goodbye to our new RV neighbours, Norbert and Christina from Germany, as they headed south and we headed north to Waycross, and on to Laura S. Walker State Park. We spent 4 nights in this Park, with a nice campsite overlooking the man-made lake. The Park is named after a very influential woman who was an advocate for the area and for conservation from 1861 to 1955. It was named Georgia’s 13^th state park in 1941 – the first Georgia state park to be named after a woman.

Our first afternoon here, we walked around the campground to get oriented and enjoyed relaxing with our view of the lake.

There are lots of shared trails in this state park, so we got out the bikes and went exploring on the Big Creek Trail System and then Waterfront Trail, 13 km in total but with lots of stops along the way. We saw some “cat face” trees that had scars left by the turpentine industry, when sap was collected from these trees for 4 – 10 years before being harvested for wood.

The next day, we were back on the bikes for some more exercise, this time 17 km. This was a longer ride, since we ventured off the trails and onto the road to check out the golf course associated with the Park. On the way back, we stopped at the nature centre to check out the turtles.

On our last warm, sunny day, we traded in the mountain bikes for an aqua bike ride on the lake. We took the aqua bikes across the lake to the boardwalk and back in one hour. It was extremely hot wearing life jackets in the 88 degree weather! Luckily, all the motorboats came out on the lake after we were done.

It was time to move on to our last stop in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge area, this time Stephen C. Foster State Park on the west side of the Refuge. Along the way, we stopped in Homerville at Mama’s Country Kitchen to try some southern fried chicken. This was a 27 km drive off the main road to the Park, but certainly worth the trip.

We were fortunate to have a winter heat wave while staying in this area, which meant LOTS of alligators out sunning themselves. Originally, we did not believe that 12,000 alligators could call the Refuge home, but after seeing all the gators in this area, we certainly believe it now! In one small area by the park office where the boat ramp was, we counted over 30 little gators hanging out. Of course, Big Momma (named Sophie) was not too far away ?.

This area looked like a great place to rent a kayak, but we decided we would first take the 90-minute guided boat trip to get the lay of the land. The trip was great, largely thanks to the park naturalist, who was very knowledgeable. We saw lots of alligators, a barred owl, turtles, cormorants, sand hill cranes, and great egrets. We learned that if you see an alligator with its mouth open, that means it is overheated and is trying to cool down. A group of adult alligators is called a congregation, and a group of babies is a pod.

The following day, we rented a tandem kayak just like the one we have at home, except it did not have a rudder so it was harder to steer. It’s quite disconcerting when you paddle by a 7-foot or 8-foot alligator and he slips into the tannin-colored water – once he goes underwater, you don’t know where he is!

We first paddled along the same route (Billy’s Lake) that the tour boat followed the day before, but then we took the Minnie’s Lake channel, which was very pretty. There was one narrow section called Pinball Alley, where you feel like a pinball as you turn around all the large cypress trees in the water. We saw similar wildlife to the day before, except we also saw some white ibis. However, the peacefulness of gliding quietly along the water gave a very different experience than when on the tour boat. We covered about 8.5 km in 3.5 hours of paddling. Sharon commented, “This is what I always thought the swamp would be like.”

That concluded our visit to Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia, and we were really glad we did this side-trip off the coastline. It was easy to get campsites at all 3 parks in January, and we had great weather, which allowed us to see lots of wildlife. In addition, with our Georgia State Park pass, we were able to take advantage of their January 50% off camping special, which meant it was very inexpensive. Another great place to add to your travel bucket list.

While driving south on our snowbird adventure last winter, we decided to head to the coast of South Carolina, since we had never been there before, and it turned out to be a fabulous area to visit in December. We spent 16 days along the coast, staying in four state parks and two county parks. Here are a few fun facts about South Carolina:

• The state has a rich history, including Spanish explorers arriving in 1514 and the founding of Charleston as the state’s first English settlement in 1670.
• South Carolina became the country’s eighth state in 1788 and currently has just over four million people.
• Two major hurricanes have impacted South Carolina – Hazel in 1954, and Hugo in 1989.
• We spent most of our time along the coast, which is also called Lowcountry, due to being at sea level.
• South Carolina is famous for its golf courses (but since we are not golfers, we didn’t take advantage ?).

This map shows the route we took along the coast, so you can get oriented for what this article covers.

Our first stop was Myrtle Beach State Park. This park is right by the beach, and staying here cost only $19 per night (plus tax) for a site with electric and water hookups in a well-treed area – from our site, you got high speed internet as well! The only downside is close proximity to the airport, but plane landing times were grouped quite well, so this was not really an issue. We stayed at this park for three nights and walked around 15,000 steps every day. We explored the beach in our hunt for seashells, had some great meals, and hiked all the nature trails. We also walked along the board walk in Myrtle Beach to learn about the history of the area.

Our next stop was just down the road at Huntington Beach State Park, where we stayed for four nights. This park seemed to be more popular, as it was more difficult to get a booking. On our first day here, we enjoyed walking along the beach, seeing horseshoe crabs and sand pipers, and looking for seashells. The second day, we did a much longer walk on the hiking trails to see the birds and the alligators. We did a quick tour of the Atalaya Visitor Center to learn about Archer and Anna Huntington. The Huntingtons were a wealthy, artistic couple (Archer was a poet and Anna was a sculptor) who purchased four rice plantations in order to build Atalaya, their winter getaway (atalayaa means “watchtower” in Spanish), and eventually also Brookgreen Gardens, where many of Anna’s sculptures are on display. The amazing thing about all of this is that they built their getaway during the Depression. We decided to do the full tour of Atalaya the following day, when they were having a Christmas craft sale. One reason we enjoy the coastal area is our love for walking on the beach, and this day as we headed back to our LTV we were lucky to see dolphins swimming just offshore.

We prefer the “go with the flow” travel style, but we are finding it more difficult to get campsites in the state parks recently, so we spent the next morning booking parks for the following several weeks. In the afternoon, we headed over to Atalaya, where the Friends of the Park were holding a craft sale as a fundraiser to build a new nature center in the state park. The estate was decorated for the holidays, and most rooms were decorated by the vendor using them. It was interesting to read about the history of each room (Joel) and then check out the local artisans’ work (Sharon).  The estate has two large courtyards, and we got to enjoy the sunny weather while listening to The Pawley Island Jazz Band.

We heard about the Nights of a Thousand Candles display at Brookgreen Gardens, which is just across the highway from the Park. We were very lucky to get two tickets for Sunday night, so we drove the RV over and were in line to enter the grounds at 3 pm when the gates opened.

Brookgreen Gardens is a 9,100-acre sculpture garden and wildlife preserve built by the Huntington’s former property, which is now a National Historic Landmark. In December, lights are placed throughout the garden and 2,700 candles are hand lit every night! You can walk around to see the lights, but they also have tents set up with music, food, and drinks. We were very glad we went at opening, as this allowed us to walk around in the daylight to see the gardens and sculptures and get oriented before the lights and candles were lit up. They have tons of volunteers throughout the grounds to give you guidance and to light the candles. While exploring, we enjoyed some sparkling wine so we could get the Christmas glasses to wear. My glasses converted the candles and lights to elves and Sharon’s let her see angels flapping their wings. We saw Celtic musicians with an electric bag pipe, a soul group, an actor (Bill Oberst Jr.) playing out Scrooge’s story, and a choir singing Christmas songs. We were super impressed with the food in the dining tent; I had a flounder dinner and Sharon had she-crab soup and hushpuppies. As you will see from the photos, this place is absolutely magical!

When we left Huntington Beach State Park, we headed to Hampton Plantation State Historic Site. This plantation originally had rice fields on Hampton Island, and the mansion was built on the property between 1730 and 1750. Several wealthy families ran the plantation over the years, with many slaves as the labourers. The Rutledge family eventually donated the plantation mansion to the state, although they still hunt on Hampton Island itself. We were the only visitors there, so we got a personalized tour of the mansion from the ranger on duty. The family kept the original furniture, so the tour features only the architecture of the building. After finishing the tour, we hiked on some of the trails around the grounds. We stayed that night at Buck Hall Recreation Area for $20 a night, right on the Intracoastal Waterway.

Our next location was James Island County Park, just outside of Charleston. We were able to check in early, which was great because it was 80 degrees Fahrenheit – perfect weather for a bike ride around the Park.

James Island has an annual Holiday Festival of Lights show, so we paid $3 for the shuttle to drive us around the Park at night to view all the fun light displays. (Turns out there was one other LTV in the Park, and they happened to be on the shuttle as well.) The Park has four year-round staff who look after the lights, and several volunteers – each year, they change all the light bulbs in the displays, to a current estimated count of 5 million lights! Every year three new exhibits are added, so the show keeps getting larger. While there were plans to switch to LED lights in all of the displays, when they changed some of the older ones to LED, the new lights were too bright and the display could not be seen properly, so the lights were changed back. Each night costs between $1,200 and $2,000 in electricity, which is the reason it costs $20 per car to drive through the lights show. After our tour, we checked out the carnival area, and of course Sharon had to spend time in the shops!

We chose James Island because it has a shuttle that will take you into downtown Charleston for $10 per person. So the next morning, we got dropped off at the Charleston Visitor Center, got a few sightseeing tips, and then headed out on a 17 km walking adventure in Charleston.

Charleston has a lot of history, dating back to the 1600s. Our first stop was Charleston City Market, where we wandered through the craft seller booths, although we did not buy anything due to limited space in the RV. We followed a walking tour from our CAA tour book, which pointed out some of the more interesting buildings and architecture in the downtown area, including the oldest liquor store in North America, established in 1686. Ok, we might have done some shopping here!

We also saw many churches and houses in the Palladianism style, which was notable for the front door leading to a porch on the side of the house instead of entering the house itself. There are lots of restaurants in downtown Charleston, but we had a recommendation to go to Hyman’s Seafood (established in 1890) for lunch. Just like all the buildings we saw, the restaurant had lots of history, including all the famous people who had eaten there (Martin Sheen and Jodie Foster ate at our table). After lunch, we went along the harborfront and looped down to Battery Point before returning to catch our shuttle at 4 pm.

On our drive to the next state park, we wanted to stop to see the Angel Oak tree, but unfortunately the grounds were closed for some staff training, so we had to take our pictures through the fence. This live oak tree is one of the oldest trees on the east coast and is estimated to be 400-500 years old. It stands at 66.5 feet tall, with a circumference of 28 feet! The longest branch is 187 feet in length and the tree gives shade to a 17,200 square foot area.

The next stop was Charleston Tea Garden, where we learned many interesting facts about tea. We first did the trolley tour around the plantation to learn about how they grow and look after the plants, and then we did the self-guided factory tour. The factory was not producing tea when we were there, but videos explained the steps in the process. In the gift shop were lots of free samples of both hot and cold teas. Here are a few of the key facts:

• This tea plantation on Wadmalaw Island is the only place growing and making tea in North America.
• The camellia sinensis plants grow for four years before tea leaves can be regularly harvested from them.
• Plants are trimmed to a set height, and then only the new growth leaves above this height are harvested for tea.
• During the prime season, leaves can be harvested every 21 days.
• To process the tea, wilted leaves are put through a machine called a rotovane to rupture the cells, after which the leaves are oxidized, followed by the drying stage.
• The three types of tea – black, oolong, and green – are created by varying the length of time oxidizing the leaves. Black tea oxidizes for 50 minutes, oolong for 15 minutes, and green for zero minutes. This variation creates different color and flavor.
• Five pounds of fresh leaves will make one pound of tea, as 97% of the moisture is removed and 80% of the weight.
• We will never drink decaffeinated tea again, as the process uses the same chemicals as paint thinner and nail polish remover to eliminate the caffeine! Not really appetizing, is it? Heat releases the caffeine, so to get 65% less caffeine in your tea, throw away the first cup and steep a second cup. In the south, they enjoy their cold-steeped tea, which also has less caffeine.
• To make the perfect cup of tea, bring cold water to a rolling boil, then, using one teaspoon of tea per cup, pour the water over the tea (don’t put the tea into the water). Brew to desired strength (anywhere from two to six minutes).

Next up, we decided we would stop at Deep Water Vineyards for a wine tasting, since we were relatively close. It turned out the vineyard is connected to Firefly Distillery, so we got to do two sets of tastings. At Deep Water, we chose to go with the “honeymoon package”, which allows each person to choose six wines, with the first five being different from one another so you can sample each other’s choices and therefore actually try 11 different products.

The primary grape grown in this area is muscadine, but Deep Water also brings in some grape varieties from California to blend. At the end of our tasting, we were able to try the grape juice itself, and we bought a couple of bottles of that as well as some wine. Across the patio was the distillery, and there we shared a tasting of six different products. Firefly has a large variety of vodkas, moonshine (whiskey without the aging), whiskey, rum, and liqueurs. Naturally, we also bought several of their products. The distillery will be moving to Charleston soon, as they do not have enough space at the current location and the county tax laws are more favourable.

Finally, we arrived at Edisto Beach State Park, which has one campground in the maritime forest and another beside the beach, which is the one we had chosen. This beach certainly was not as long as Myrtle or Huntington, but it did have a lot of shells, which made for great walks.

We learned some civil rights history here: South Carolina state parks practiced racial segregation from their founding until 1966. In 1965, a judge ruled that the parks must integrate, so a group of 13 civil rights workers went to Edisto for Fourth of July celebrations, but they were arrested. Finally, in 1966, the park segregation was lifted.

One afternoon, the park rangers were doing a talk on alligators, so we did a 12 km hike from the beach campground to the education center at the far end of the maritime forest. We watched a video about alligator research and went through the exhibits in the education center. On the way back, we stopped to see the 4,000-year-old shell midden, which unfortunately is eroding into the coastal waterway.

Our last stop along the South Carolina coast was Hunting Island State Park, where we stayed for three nights. This park is technically only 20 kms away from Edisto, but we had to drive 135 kms out and back to get there, due to the waterways. This park was massively impacted by Hurricane Mathew in 2016, and actually lost 40 feet of beach and 14 cabins – only one cabin remains, by the lighthouse.

Despite the damage, this park was one of our favorites, as it has a very long beach with shells and fossilized shark teeth, some great mountain bike trails through the palmetto forest and along the salt water lagoon, a boardwalk out into the salt marsh, an interpretative center with local snakes and turtles, a lighthouse (moved to its current location in 1889 and 132.5 feet high) which is open to the public, and ranger-/volunteer-led programs. Over our three-night/four-day stay, we did 11 kms of walking and about 29 kms of biking. This was definitely a park we would like to return to in the future. When we left Hunting Island, we had a great seafood lunch at the Johnson Creek Tavern.

We hope you have enjoyed this trip along the South Carolina coast! It is definitely a place to add to your travel list.

Please note: The travel story below was submitted to Triple E Recreational Vehicles by an independent third party and has not been verified by Triple E Recreational Vehicles. Please do your own research on road conditions and road safety before attempting to drive this or other routes. Triple E Recreational Vehicles is not able to provide any information about road conditions or safety (including whether or not the route below is suitable for your specific vehicle). Always follow all applicable laws.

One of the largest decisions you need to make when planning a trip to Alaska, Yukon, and Northwest Territories is whether to tackle the Dempster Highway through Yukon to Northwest Territories. This is a dirt/gravel/shale road (started in 1959 and completed in 1979) that takes you to the Arctic Circle and beyond to Inuvik. The road past Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk and the Arctic Ocean was just opened in November of 2017. You should not take this decision lightly, as there are very few services along the way, cell coverage is very limited, and getting flat tires or cracked windshields is quite common. However, with the right preparation you can experience absolutely breathtaking northern wilderness with an abundance of wildlife. You will travel through multiple mountain ranges with wildflowers everywhere, see completely unspoiled vistas, and travel through vast stretches of tundra. We decided to take the challenge and spent 8 days from June 17 to 25 this year covering 1,800 km of dirt roads, and we would say it was completely worth it! Here is a link to our routing so you can get oriented: The Dempster Highway Routing

Day 1 – 72 km: Start of the Dempster to Tombstone Territorial Park

For our first day we covered the short distance to Tombstone Territorial Park, and since it had rained the night before, the road was quite muddy, making our RV the dirtiest it has ever been. We saw our first grizzly bear on the way to the Park, but he ran away so we didn’t get a photo. We checked in at the campground and went to the Interpretative Centre to learn more about the Park and the available hikes. The ranger also loaned us a Dempster Highway Travelogue booklet that is no longer being published, and we used its incredible detail to guide the rest of our journey. We decided to do both the Beaver Pond Trail and the Northern Klondike River Trail that afternoon. There was rain off and on, but the views were amazing.

Start of the Dempster Highway.

Dempster Highway map.

Typical road conditions.

Tombstone Territorial Park Interpretative Centre.

Beaver Pond Trail.

Northern Klondike River Trail.

Northern Klondike River Trail.

Day 2 – 296 km: Tombstone Territorial Park to Eagle Plains

It took us 5 hours and 46 minutes of driving time to cover the next 296 km of dirt road, and this drive is incredibly challenging for the driver. You want to look around at the scenery, but you must keep very good focus on the road well ahead of you. There was very little traffic, but we encountered sections of road with a sharp shale-type surface, which we had to quickly steer around to avoid tire punctures. We learned that whenever there are pylons or orange flags, that means there is a hazard – so slow down! When we did have opposing traffic coming towards us, especially transport trucks, I would pull to the right and almost completely stop, as this would help avoid getting hit with rocks as well as blinding conditions in the clouds of dust. I also slowed down for motorcycles and bicycles (yes, there are a few on this road) so that they didn’t get a huge amount of our dust.

The first stop that morning was at the Tombstone Mountain viewpoint, but we had low clouds and couldn’t see the actual mountain. We eventually climbed up into the clouds at North Fork Pass Summit (1,289 m) which is the highest point on the road.

There are two famous North-West Mounted Police (forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) stories that happened in this area. The first is the story about The Lost Patrol, where 4 officers perished in 1910 on their way to Dawson City. The second is about the hunt for a man they called the “Mad Trapper,” and it was this hunt that helped to foster a familiar saying about the Mounties: they “always get their man.”

The geology during this drive showed quite dramatic changes. We followed the Blackstone Uplands and the Taiga Range, then the Ogilvie Mountains to the Ogilvie Range and on to Eagle Plains, where we would be stopping. Along this stretch we saw a black bear and a cinnamon-coloured bear.

Eagle Plains is the first gas stop since the start of the Dempster Highway, so everyone fills up here (diesel was $1.60 CAD/l). There had been snow in this area the night before, so many campers waited until things melted before leaving, causing the staff to be a bit behind schedule. Once we checked in and got the RV parked (no services), we went to the restaurant for dinner. I had penne and Sharon had scalloped potatoes (lots of them) with a side of pepperoni-stuffed chicken breast (a little weird, but tasty).

Park information board.

Blackstone Uplands.

Day 3 – 362 km: Eagle Plains to Inuvik

On Day 3 we drove 362 km in 6 hours and 42 minutes of driving time, with several stops along the way and two ferry crossings. We got a very early start from Eagle Plains in hopes of seeing more wildlife, and we were in luck as we saw a moose and her two calves cross the road. We were the first ones to arrive at the Arctic Circle that morning, which was great for photos. The Arctic Circle is also known as the Land of the Midnight Sun and is the home of the Inuvialuit.

We crossed the boundary for Northwest Territories and followed the twisty road through several valleys until we eventually dropped down to the Peel River ferry crossing. It was a very short crossing and the ferry was winched across using ropes on either side. Just after the ferry, we stopped in the Gwich’in Interpretative Centre to see the displays.

The Mackenzie and Arctic Red River ferry crossing was much larger and went to 3 different locations. Prior to getting into Inuvik, we stopped at the Tithe geh Chii vitajj Territorial View Point to do a short hike, where we learned that a mosquito can take up to a half cup of blood per day from an adult caribou!

On reaching the end of the Dempster Highway in Inuvik, we checked in to the Happy Valley Territorial Park and had nice long showers in the shower house.

Arctic Circle.

Northwest Territory valleys.

Entering the Mackenzie River Delta.

Peel River ferry crossing.

Tithe geh Chii vitajj Territorial viewpoint.

Inuvik.

Day 4 – 155 km: Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk

In November of 2017, a highway from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk (Tuk) opened. This is the only place in North America where you can drive to the Arctic Ocean year-round! Due to the permafrost in the area, the highway had to be built up 1.8 meters above ground (you don’t want your highway melting the permafrost and sinking into the ground). The landscape gets more interesting as you head towards Tuk – you start with stunted tree growth, but transition to a beautiful area with hundreds of small lakes, so many snow geese and arctic swans that we stopped counting, beautiful wildflowers, and pingos! We saw lots of snowmobiles, sleds, and boats along the roadside, as the Inuvialuit leave them there to use when they go hunting and fishing. We’re still a bit confused about the boats on the side of the road – maybe the Inuvialuit drag them when there is snow, and will move them at some point. We visited the Pingo Canadian Landmark (the only national landmark in Canada), and saw Canada’s largest pingo (the second largest in the world).

We camped at the point with a nice spot looking at the Arctic Ocean. We spent our day wandering around town, taking in the traditional way of life. We met a fisherman catching coney and whitefish in his net in the harbour, and we bought some “fish sticks” (coney fish jerky) from him. He told us to come back the following morning to get some smoked whitefish. It was $10 for a whole bag of fish sticks and only $20 for an entire smoked whitefish!

We saw the Our Lady of Lourdes Schooner that was used as a delivery vessel to remote missions, historic sod and driftwood houses, furs drying, and lots of driftwood on the shores (which they use for firewood).

We hadn’t planned this, but we were in Tuk on June 21 – the Summer Solstice! It was also grad night for 21 students at the local high school, the biggest graduating class in many years. We got to experience the Midnight Sun and the graduation celebrations. In essence, we could see the sun going around us and dipping a bit on the horizon but never setting – very cool. It was a bit cloudy later so we couldn’t actually see the sun at midnight. However, with the celebration for grad and the holiday the next day we did get to see the beaming bright sun at 3 am!

Washing our LTV, “Plankton,” after half of the Dempster Highway journey.

Along the road to Tuktoyaktuk.

Pingo Canadian Landmark in Tuktoyaktuk.

How pingos are formed.

Pingo Canadian Landmark.

We reached the Arctic Ocean.

Whitefish smoking.

Arctic ground squirrel.

Historic driftwood shelter.

The sun still up at 3 am, in a photo taken from inside the cab.

Day 5 – 151 km: Tuktoyaktuk to Inuvik

The next day, we returned to Inuvik and headed over to the park as it was National Indigenous Day and also Summer Solstice celebrations. A demonstration of indigenous sports was happening in the park, and we got to watch various types of ball kick. The last demo was the blanket toss, which needed 37 people to hold the canvas, and Sharon was one of the participants. The instructions given were that “on the count of one, you pull back to make the canvas taut, on the count of two, you pull back even further (now you’re feeling your arm muscles – or lack there of), and on three, you do a pull and a lift upwards and the person on the canvas goes airborne.” At the end of the game, Sharon was so exhausted she needed to go to the northern-most Legion in Canada to soothe her sore arms!

Ball Kick competition.

Blanket toss.

Day 6 – 291 km: Inuvik to Rock River Campground

We decided to stay at a few different campgrounds on the way back down the Dempster Highway, and that also helped to reduce the number of hours of driving per day. It was interesting how many different things we saw when driving the opposite direction.

Our first stop was in Fort MacPherson, so we could see the memorial for the 4 North-West Mounted Police who died as part of the Lost Patrol in 1910. We crossed on both ferries and then went back over the border into Yukon. Rock River Campground wasn’t very busy, so we got a spot right by the river. There are such amazing aqua, milk, and red colours in the river due to the types of rocks that are under the surface. We were very glad we’d made this a stop.

Folded rocks.

Rock River.

Day 7 – 250 km: Rock River Campground to Engineer Creek Campground

We had a nice clear view at the Arctic Circle viewpoint and we drove back across one of the several emergency airstrips along the Highway. We stopped in Eagle Plains for fuel and to pick up our Arctic Circle certificates. Shortly after we came across a very cooperative moose who allowed us to get some great shots. At another pull off for some fossil rocks, we saw a really amazing rock pattern – we weren’t sure if this was the fossils we were supposed to see or not! At Engineer Creek Campground we were early enough that we got another spot right by the creek, but it was a major mosquito fest!

Clear view at the Arctic Circle Viewpoint.

Moose beside the highway.

Strange rock formation.

Engineer Creek.

Day 8 – 121 km: Engineer Creek Campground to Tombstone Territorial Park

Since very few people stayed at Engineer Creek, there was no traffic on the road the next morning. The bonus was that we got to see dall sheep as they were coming down the cliff to the creek bed to lick some salt off the rocks. They were a little distant, but you should be able to see them in the photo below.

One of the hikes we had missed on the way up the Dempster was Goldensides, so we decided to do that one before returning to Tombstone Territorial Park. The hike was 6.5 km and had 301 metres of elevation gain. The combination of the mountains all around you and the wildflowers everywhere made it a very memorable hike. There were two different viewpoints, so we had our lunch at the highest one and then returned to see the second one.

Dall sheep.

Reflection along the Dempster.

Reflection along the Dempster.

View at the top of Goldensides Trail.

Beautiful wildflowers along Goldensides Trail.

Day 9 – 94 km: Tombstone to Klondike River Territorial Park (just outside Dawson City)

When we woke up the next morning in Tombstone, we could smell smoke and the sun was hazed out. The ranger told us there were a couple of forest fires that had started overnight; however, it didn’t impact our drive back to the beginning of the Dempster Highway.

Forest fire haze washing out the sky.

Lessons Learned Along the Way

What an adventure the Dempster Highway was, with spectacular scenery and wildlife along the way. We’re very glad we made the decision to tackle it. In terms of lessons learned, here are a few key planning steps we would recommend:

• There are only a few gas stations on this route, so we would recommend carrying a large container with extra diesel (we had a 21 l container).
• We used painters tape to cover the lower sections of the outside storage compartments, the gaps between the compartments, and the locks, in order to limit the amount of dust entering from those areas.
• Plan to take 6-8 days to do this trip, as you really can’t go the speed limit on most sections of the road and you want to have time to enjoy the scenery.
• Carry clear Gorilla Tape to put on any stone chips you may get on your windshield to help prevent them from spreading until you can get the windshield repaired. Alternatively, carry a glass repair kit.
• There are only a few places to fill up on fresh water and to dump your black and grey tanks, so conserve appropriately.
• Drive at a very conservative speed and stop on the road whenever traffic is coming from the other direction to avoid stone chips and to reduce dust.
• We had brand new tires installed before we did this trip and therefore chose not to carry a spare tire, but if we were to do this again, we would likely carry a spare tire on a rim. We did see several people along the road who had flat tires. We did have a tire repair kit with us but the peace of mind of a backup tire would be beneficial.
• We did not get any windshield chips or flat tires along the Dempster, but we did get stone chips on the hood and hundreds of paint chips on the bottom sections of the outside storage compartments.
• If you do have any issues along the highway, other travellers always stop to see if you need help.
• We were lucky that we only had rain on our very first day. If the conditions are rainy, the road becomes a mud bog and you should avoid travelling. It is better to stay put until the rain lets up and the road has a chance to dry out.
• The last photo shows you all the certificates you get if you complete this journey.
• A useful link for planning your journey is The Dempster Highway Information.

As long as you are well-prepared and start out with the right attitude (knowing your LTV will sustain some damage), travelling the Dempster Highway and on to Tuktoyaktuk is definitely a worthwhile adventure, based on our experience. In fact, we would say it was the best highlight of our 5-month, 22,000 km journey to the Northwest of North America.