Let’s go camping!

Sunrise on Barkley Lake

Hey, Y’all!!  Now that I’ve caught you up on what FINALLY spurred us to purchase our first RV, I am able to get down to business and share one of the main goals of this blog…our camping adventures!!

But, first, I’ll fill you in what lead up to that initial camping experience.  A little “back story”, if you will….  (Are y’all figuring out WHY all those elementary school teachers marked “talks too much” on my report cards yet?)

As soon as we picked out the Jayco we came home and started searching for locally-available campsites.  There were three local campgrounds we were most interested in.  Two were Corps of Engineer campgrounds:  the Canal Campground in Grand Rivers, and Eureka Campground in Kuttawa.  Both of which are on Barkley Lake.  The other was Hillman Ferry Campground, located in Land Between the Lakes on Kentucky Lake.  We had yet to drive through any of them to see how their campsites were laid out, the ease/difficulty in parking, etc. We were excited to finally be able to start camping, so we just found sites with the soonest availabilities.  The first site ended up being at the Canal Campground, starting the Tuesday after the Fourth of July.  We were lucky enough to be able to reserve that site for several days.  From there, we grabbed a site at Eureka Campground for the weekend after.  Then, we snagged a couple of weekends at Hillman Ferry.  We felt good about the decent start we got with our reservations and excited to get our little gal out on her maiden voyage.

A couple of weeks before our first reservation, we decided to take a drive and see if we’d be allowed to drive through and check out the sites we’d reserved at the Canal, and also at Hillman Ferry.  Driving up to enter into the Canal Campground, to your left and through some trees, we could see the lake!  I was STOKED!!  (Side note…I am OBSESSED with water!  But, I’ll revisit that some other time.)  We got to the little Welcome shed, told the lady what we were interested in doing and she happily handed me a map of the campground, showing me where our site was, and told us to feel free to check the whole place out.  Which is exactly what we did.  We drove down every loop, making notes of the sites we thought were the “best” for future reference. I couldn’t help but to notice that everyone we saw waved at us.  Just a quick raise of the hand, but it made me feel so welcomed, like we’d already become a part of the camping community…and, there IS a camping community!  The sites were nicely spaced from each other, and with only like 117 sites, the campground didn’t feel overcrowded with people.  Leaving out the drive, I felt certain we were going to love camping there.

Next up was Hillman Ferry, just a few miles down the Trace from the Canal.  We pulled up to their Welcome shed and was greeted by a young fella.  We asked the same we’d asked of the lady at the Canal.  But, this time we weren’t given the “feel free to check the whole place out” vibe.  Instead, we were given a piece of paper with the time we’d arrived and told we had 30 minutes before we had to return it and leave.  Okay, no problem.  Rules are made for a reason, so we were happy to abide by theirs.  We started our drive through the campground’s roads, finally finding the two campsites we’d reserved.  We looked at each other and both agreed this was not the campground for us.  There were way too many people and not enough space between the sites.  We immediately made the decision to cancel those two reservations, take whatever monetary loss it’d be, and not entertain the idea of making any others there.  (I will also say that we have many friends who have been camping at Hillman Ferry for years and LOVE it.  It’s just not for us.)

The next Sunday, we took a little drive to Kuttawa to check out Eureka Campground.  We were given the same kind, welcoming response to our request as we had been given at the Canal Campground.  Even more so, as she explained the ins/outs or tips and tricks, if you will, of making reservations at Corps campgrounds.  

Eureka is a rather small campground.  With only 26 sites, it can be a little difficult to get a site reserved.  But, man, are there some amazing views from most of those sites!!  A majority of the sites are right on the water, or very near it.  I made the same notes driving through as I did at Canal, and was equally as excited for the time we’d be spending camping there.

July 6th FINALLY arrives and we are off to spend the rest of the week on site 53 on Beach Loop of the Canal Campground!   This site’s location is very near the bathhouse, close to the main road that runs through the campground, and also near the campground’s beach.  So, to say it was a busy little site would be an accurate description.  Initially, I was a little putout by all the traffic and lack of privacy, as this site faces towards Beach Loop road AND the main road. (Remember that we live on a farm. Which means we are used to lots of privacy, peace & quiet) However, since we didn’t have sewer hookups at our site (and, would be there for several days), it quickly became obvious that it was a nice convenience to be that close to the bathhouse.  And, then, when the “golf cart parade” began we got to see and wave at everyone passing by.  What’s the “golf cart parade”, you ask?  Well, it’s what happens every few hours, especially during the heat of Summer.  Folks get on their golf carts, often groups of golf carts, and drive through the campground.  We could only assume in order to get some type of relief from the heat of the day.  Also, likely a form of entertainment and to check out the who/what/where of any newly arriving campers (that last part is definitely something that became a topic for us on our daily walks…surely we aren’t the only ones?!).  The parades also occurred right about dusk as well.  I must admit, it became quite entertaining for us to watch in between our own bike riding and multiple daily walks around the campground.  By the quiet time of 10pm, though, not a golf cart was heard or even a person really.  Everyone seemed quite respectful of their neighbors.

We didn’t venture outside of the campground that week except to make a quick drive home to check on things.  It was of great ease to my mind to be only 20 minutes away, able to make a quick dash home to see that all of my critters were okay, and then right back to the camper to reinstate “vacation mode”.  In that week, I was convinced we had made the right decision in purchasing our little Jayco, and that we were going to have a Summer to remember.  And, boy, was I RIGHT!!!

More about our Summer at the Canal Campground to come.  

Next time, though, I’ll be sharing our experience at Eureka Campground.  So, come back again!

XOXO, T

Pic below is from right after setting up camp on Site 53 on Beach Loop in Canal Campground.

Second pic:  Coonie settled right into the camping lifestyle.

Third pic:  Coonie ready to go for a bike ride in his “redneck engineered” covered basket. That boy is up for anything!