Glacial Erratics in Our Neighborhoods

Posted on January 22, 2012 by admin

Millions and thousands of years ago, a number of geologic events–volcanic eruptions and glaciers and floods–created the lands of Washington State as we know them today. We’re told that Puget Sound was carved out by glaciers millions of years ago, and the basalt that underlies central and eastern Washington was once molten lava spewed out by–well, there’s controversy over that one–by one giant volcano? by many eruptions?

Last summer I took a course with Road Scholar on the scablands of eastern Washington, studying how giant lakes, damned up by glaciers, broke loose and carved the deep coulees that are there now:  the Grand Coulee where the dam is, Dry Falls once many times greater than Niagara, and many features of the Columbia Gorge. As we toured we found many erratics,  each “a rock somehow transported and dropped some distance from its original home” (David Alt,   Glacial Lake Missoula and Its Humongous Floods, 2001). These rocks were not all pebbles; some were the size of a two story house.

Now I know of two of these rocks, right here in Seattle. When I lived in a neighborhood called Wedgwood Rock, near Eckstein Middle School, there was a big rock up the hill from my house. I knew that if that rock broke loose it would roll down 72nd NE right into my house–of course it would take a humongous earthquake to break it loose. In early Seattle days, people would make an excursion of going out to see Big Rock. You can see it easily. Go to 28th Ave NE, between NE 75th St and Ne 72nd St. The rock is covered with foliage and 28th curves around it. Please don’t bother the neighbors who have the rock in their front yard.

The second rock, you can’t see. Believe. While we were walking down Broadway with our regular walking group, George Guttmann stopped us in front of Casa del Rey Apartments and told us this story: Many years ago, he had been working on a construction project to dig out a street level space under that residential building which at the time was up a small slope next to the sidewalk. As they dug, they found an enormous rock, so big that removing it would be very difficult, and of course blasting it, which was common with big rocks in early Seattle, was out of the question. So they secured the rock with ropes to keep it in place, and dug behind it and under it until they had a gigantic hole. They rolled the rock into the hole and covered it. It’s still there, under the floor. As you step across the level threshold at the retail space under Casa del Rey, think about that rock and ponder–how many big rocks lie under the surface of my city? In my neighborhood? Under my house?

 

 

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What’s Your Favorite Dessert? A Meditation on Bread Pudding

Posted on December 26, 2011 by admin

I don’t have a favorite dessert, but my husband loooves Bread Pudding. Whenever we go to a new restaurant, before he orders anything else, he asks if they have bread pudding, and if they do, he orders it immediately, to be served later, to be sure they don’t run out before he gets his portion.

Bread pudding was originally a Depression Era treat. Cookbooks from those times say, if you have six slices of bread leftover, and if your chickens are laying, then all you need is some milk and some sugar or honey, and even less of that if you don’t have much, and you can have bread pudding.

That’s basic. We have developed certain criteria for good bread pudding. It should not be too dense, but it also should not be loose–that means, that it should hold a square shape and not sag into a lump, but it should give way under gentle pressure from a spoon. It should not be too sweet or too bland, but it should be tasty without resort to a sauce. The flavor should be more complex than plain sweetening–at the least, vanilla or cinnamon. If it has a sauce, that too should not be too sweet, but flavorsome. Brandy or bourbon sauce is good, if it’s not too sweet. The bread pudding should not lose the character of whatever it was made of–so it should still look like chunks of bread, croissant, cinnamon roll, whatever. A dense mass of unrecognizable stuff is not good. Additions like raisins, nuts, chocolate chips are all good, but not necessary.

The best bread pudding we ever tasted was made at a restaurant no longer in existence. Jeff and Susan Pedersen had a cafe within their Petroleum Museum in Seattle. A friend and I celebrated our 60th birthdays there, with a Depression Era menu: oysters, baked salmon, bean salad, bread pudding–all those items were Depression foods in Seattle, where oysters were free for the gathering and Indians went door to door selling salmon for twenty-five cents apiece. The bread pudding Susan served was made of chunks of pound cake, real cream, sugar, and chocolate chips.

The best bread pudding we have had recently we enjoyed just ten days ago, at BOKA KITCHEN & BAR, on First Avenue in downtown Seattle. The texture was just right, the taste was just right, the square of pudding rested on creme Chantilly (whipped cream) and was topped with ice cream–cardamom or cinnamon or something exotic. The whole was topped by a delicate, almost transparent praline made of sugar and nuts, standing on edge in the ice cream. What a great treat!

No, I don’t make bread pudding! How can I compete?

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The Movie “172 Hours,” the Furnace in Arches National Park, and Me

Posted on November 26, 2011 by admin

Don and Goldie at Arches National Park

What do you think when you see this picture of Don and me? That we are enjoying a moment of  quiet repose, soaking in the scenery of Arches National Park and breathing in the dry desert air?

We are standing at the fenced off entrance to the Fiery Furnace waiting for the ranger who will lead us through this area so convoluted with slot canyons (narrow passages), fins (slim vertical rocks), and other rocks that casual visitors are not allowed into the Furnace by themselves. The park service requires that you sign up for a ranger guided tour or obtain a special permit. Tourist books call the Fiery Furnace a maze or a labyrinth; it is also one of the most incredible and spectacular spaces in the park. The route through requires scrambling and squeezing through tight spaces. We had each paid our non-refundable $25 for the trip, there was a waiting list of people who didn’t make the quota, and in the picture I am wondering if this trip is something I really want to do.

I was sick. I had left home with “a little cold,” and the heat (over ninety degrees every one of these September days), the altitude (over 6,000 feet), and my dehydration from the first two had made my little cold much worse. I seemed to be constantly coughing, and I had already started on my second box of cough drops for the day. On the other hand, I knew this was probably the only time in my life that I would have the opportunity to go through the Fiery Furnace. I felt miserable, so of course I chose to go with the ranger. I coughed my way through: I scrambled, crawled, and squeezed. I ate cough drops. Near the end of the tour, the ranger had the group spread out on a flat area, surrounded on all sides by straight rock walls. She told us to lie back and look at the sky, while she led us through the millions of years of history of this remarkable place. It was a beautifully meditative moment, and I was out of cough drops. I coughed and coughed. Finally another hiker offered me her supply. At the end of the tour, I apologized to the ranger, I apologized to the other hikers. They were generous and lovely. They said I had not disturbed them, they said I was wonderful, a role model, a real trooper. We want to be like you when we grow up, these young people assured me.

What does this incident have to do with the movie, “172 Hours,” about a single hiker trapped in a slot canyon who amputated his own arm in order to escape? Only that we watched the movie and I was reminded of the Fiery Furnace, I thought again of how dangerous the wilderness can be and how fool-hardy it can be to take chances there. After the Fiery Furnace, I dragged through the rest of our time in Colorado, went on to my 60th high school reunion like a zombie, and when I came home my doctor told me I had pneumonia.

Posted in Camping and Hiking Equipment, Camping and Hiking Tips, Health, Hiking, National Parks, On Aging, Travel | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

A Visit to a Sewage Treatment Plant

Posted on October 28, 2011 by admin

OK, I guess it’s not high on the list of very many people, and I admit I’ve never really thought a lot about what happens after I flush or run the garbage disposal, or  when the washing machine empties itself, so long as everything disappears down the drain the way it’s supposed to. But when an opportunity arose for my hiking group to visit the Brightwater Treatment Facility, a joint project of King County (my county) and Snohomish County (north of mine), we accepted the invitation.

Brightwater had been in the news for several years before it was finally completed. First the usual problems of where to put it–NIMBY–not in my backyard. Then there were construction problems, like when the high-tech European drill that was supposed to dig the long tunnel through which treated water would flow from the plant to Puget Sound broke down, and all the digging stopped while we waited for parts from Europe. Like that. But now the plant is almost complete, so complete that it’s open for tours, on Mondays for adult groups, by reservation, and during the rest of the week for school groups.

Photo by Jon Ostrow

So there we were, fourteen of us, decked out in yellow hard hats and bright green  vests, gathered in the Environmental Education Community Center, ready to spend two hours walking, climbing stairs, and looking at pipes–lots of pipes, giant pipes, small pipes, white pipes, silver pipes and even purple pipes. Purple pipes are significant–they carry the reclaimed water that is 99% purified, used to water the extensive landscaping of the grounds and to flush the toilets, but not fit to drink.

We learned about separating bio-solids from liquids, to make rich compost that is trucked to the wheat fields of Eastern Washington, and each of us received a small bag of compost to enrich our own gardens. We walked–fast–through the intake house where the fresh sewage comes into the plant, but that was the only place in the whole plant that was stinky. And no stink gets out! There are air cleaners that keep the bad smells inside.

The Important 4 P's

Outside the pipes and buildings there are acres of landscaping with paved walking paths and native plants. Artworks abound, especially in the Education Center, where we returned to turn in our vests and hats, and study the amazing art. The Art Plan for Brightwater was completed in 2003; a photographer began documenting the work, from demolition of structures to completion, in 2004. The art work was commissioned by 4Culture, the arts administration of King County. I can’t resist this last comment: our guide told us that the most popular exhibit for school children is this one: a toilet, with a sign that read, Any Thing That’s Not One of The Four P’s–Poop, Pee, Puke,or toilet Paper–Should Go Into Trash. It made us stop to think–don’t flush facial tissue!

The Brightwater Treatment Plant is in Woodinville, WA, off Highway 9 at 228th St. SE. To make arrangements for your group to visit, go to:  www.kingcounty.gov/environment/wtd/Education/PlantTours.aspx

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The Elwha Dams and the Snoqualmie Tunnel: Checking Off My List

Posted on July 16, 2011 by admin

I don’t like to call it a “bucket list”–I don’t want to think about “kicking the bucket.” My list, which grows almost faster than I can check off accomplishments, is just a list of things to do, places to go, some day soon. Recently I checked off two places close to Seattle that have been there a very long time, but that I had never seen. Aren’t there places like that near where you live? What are you waiting for?

I wrote about removing the Elwha dams on the Olympic peninsula in a post last April (scroll down to read it if you’ve forgotten). Two dams on the Elwha River, the Elwha Dam (1913) and the Glines Canyon Dam (1927), produced a lot of electricity but destroyed a fantastic fishery,  even though state law at the time required dams to be built with some provision for a by-pass for fish. Now there are other, bigger, less destructive producers of electricity for the area, and the river can be returned to its original state. I wanted to see the dams before the destruction begins, in September 2011. Two weeks ago we drove to Port Angeles, WA, on our quest, but we had a disappointment. The road to the Elwha Dam, which is the lower of the two, was closed on the very day we arrived! A pleasant but firm young man in a hard hat told us that we were not allowed to either walk or drive the one mile to the dam. Nuts!  We drove on to Olympic National Park where the Glines Canyon Dam is located; on the way, we stopped at an overlook to see Lake Aldwell, behind the Elwha Dam. Then on into the park and the dam. Chain link fences kept us from walking onto the Glines Canyon Dam, but I put my camera right up against the fence and photographed through it. Then we drove a little higher to stand on the banks of Lake  Mills, behind that dam. Maybe I’ll go back in a few months when the destruction of the Elwha Dam has begun; the contractors have promised that there will be a safe viewing site. Meanwhile, don’t wait. What’s on your list?

The Snoqualmie Tunnel is on the Iron Horse Trail alongside I-90 which crosses Washington state east to west. The trail, on the roadbed of the old Milwaukie Road electric railroad, is now a state park also called John Wayne State Park—I don’t know why. The two-and-a-half mile long tunnel is open only in the summer, and had been closed for several years, so when I learned that it would be open this summer, I put it on my list. Not many members of my hiking group shared my enthusiasm, but one friend, Sandy, wanted to go and my husband volunteered too, I think because he didn’t want us to do it alone. A week after the Elwha trip, we were dropped off by a friend at a trailhead for Annette Lake (Exit 47 on I-90), and took that trail up about a mile to the intersection with Iron Horse. It was a long, steep, woodsy, narrow trail up, but the Iron Horse was wide, gentle, gravel, designed for bicycles as well as hikers. (Horses, too, we saw the evidence.) We walked the Iron Horse about a mile to the western portal. The tunnel is so straight that we could see the lights at either end all the way through, but it was totally dark. Don took our picture with a flash, but not much shows up. The walking surface inside the tunnel was very smooth and hard, wet in places from dripping water, but no holes or barriers to trip us. Sandy and I each had a headlamp and a handheld flashlight. Don didn’t turn on his light at all. We walked through, from west to east, and then about a mile further to meet up with friends and our car. Been there now, done that. Check!

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Water Safety in Camp

Posted on June 18, 2011 by admin

I read two terrible news stories recently, of children drowning while their families were camping. In one, a child wandered away while his mother was cooking at their campsite. In the other, two children woke up early in the morning and left camp while their parents still were asleep. My first reaction to these tales was, “DON’T CAMP RIGHT NEXT TO WATER.”

Later I remembered a time when our oldest, at four, went out to play next to our trailer while we were still eating lunch. He came back drenched to the armpits.  We were at a beach, but the tide was way out. We never did figure out where he had been, but we were so grateful that he was safe!

My heart goes out to the families who lost their children. I began to think of ways parents I interviewed for Camping With Kids safeguarded their children in camp, especially when they had a task, like cooking, that took their attention. Some of them used a harness and a long strap or rope (yes, a leash!) to keep a child close to a tree or a tent pole or the leg of a table, just so he/she remained within sight and conversational distance. Some used a very long rope to create a play space, tree to tree to table leg or tent pole. Others carried portable enclosures or play pens. Some took turns being the designated parent to be the child-watcher. For children who might leave a tent while their parents are still sleeping, my informants recommend attaching a bell to the zipper of the tent, or sealing the tent closures with duct tape.

On one of my favorite websites, Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts, I found a link to National Water Safety Month. Water Safety Month was May, but where I live, in Seattle, only polar bears are swimming in May. Most of us wait for the 4th of July to begin swimming outdoors, unless we have access to heated pools. The list I found on that site, Water Safety Tips from our friends at the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF), would be useful in any month, especially in the summer. Many private campgrounds and even some state parks have  swimming pools, but even where there are lifeguards, the final responsibility for children’s safety remains with their parents. Most of the instructions I copied below, from the “Simple Step Saves Lives Program,” hold true near any body of water, so where you read “pool,” think also lake, stream or beach.

Staying close, being alert and watching children in and around the pool

  • Never leave a child unattended in a pool or spa and always watch your child when he or she is in or near water
  • Teach children basic water safety tips
  • Keep children away from pool drains, pipes and other openings to avoid entrapments
  • Have a telephone close by when you or your family is using a pool or spa
  • If a child is missing, look for him or her in the pool or spa first
  • Share safety instructions with family, friends and neighbors

Learning and practicing water safety skills

  • Learn how to swim and teach your child how to swim
  • Learn to perform CPR on children and adults, and update those skills regularly
  • Understand the basics of life-saving so that you can assist in a pool emergency

 

 

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Looking for a hiking group? Start your own.

Posted on June 12, 2011 by admin

Golden Agers with Golden Larches

My hiking group has been hiking together for more than 15 years. During that time, of course, many people have come and gone, but the original two are still part of the gang–my husband Don and me. In the picture, nine of us are at the top of Maple Pass; the photographer, Jon O., set the camera and ran into the top row.

It takes only two really committed people to start a hiking group. Don and I  hiked with our children on weekends when the the kids were young, but when they were all in school we began to hike  in the middle of the week on his day off. Soon we were joined by a few of my good friends, women whose husbands didn’t hike. Don was a super good sport to put up with my friends. They were good friends but not good hiking companions. Someone might announce, when we met for the day or even when we were on the trail, “I have to be home early, we’re going out tonight.” Or “I can’t go that far away. I have to get home to prepare dinner for my husband.”

Hiking with these people, we were very limited in our destinations. Don and I knew that, living in Seattle, with two national parks and the Cascade mountain range only an hour or two away from home, there would be lots of great opportunities if only we drove a little further or stayed out a little later. Neither of us liked to come home tired after a hike to face the prospect of cooking dinner; stopping for dinner at a restaurant on the way home would give us a chance to relax and rest after the hike, and come home happier. We made an announcement: from now on, no rushing home early for evening events. We would go farther, stay out longer, and stop for dinner on the way home.

My friends accepted these new conditions! At first they prepared dinner for their husbands before they left home, but they soon stopped. They discovered that these gentlemen were ignoring the dinner in the fridge and going out for pizza or burgers. So for several years there were five of us, Don and me in the front seat, and three ladies squeezed in the back.

As time passed and we grew older, we were joined by some retired men, whose wives also appreciated their night out, and by several retired couples, newly arrived in town. Now we often have three carloads, instead of one. I have 33 names on my email list of people interested in knowing about our hikes. Not all of them hike–some are members of other hiking groups, with whom we share information. I send out a notice on the weekend of where our next hike will be and where we will meet. People respond by email to let us know who is coming.

Our hikers carry their lunches of course, and also water, hats, extra warm clothing and rain gear, and we all have good boots and walking sticks. Some also carry first aid kits, maps, sit-upons and phones.  We usually have between 8 and 12 on a hike, but sometimes as many as 18. The median age of our group is probably 75. In fall, winter and spring we go on urban hikes (one man calls them “urbane”), stopping for lunch at a nice cafe or restaurant. In summer, we head for the mountains. We used to set our limits at 8 miles round trip with 2000 feet of elevation gain. Now we go no more than 6 miles, with up to 1000 feet of gain.

I like to explore new territory so I am always on the alert for hiking information from park departments in cities and counties surrounding Seattle. I subscribe to Washington Trails, an excellent organization with a magazine and website full of suggested hikes, and I trade destinations with other hiking groups. Several of the people in our group are also good planners, especially for the urban hikes, so we are never short of destinations.

We have only one problem: as we have aged, many of our members no longer feel up to driving an hour or more to the trailhead. We are recruiting younger members who are willing to drive. We’re like that commercial: “Drivers wanted.” I have had to turn down people who wanted to join us, because there is no more room in our cars. So if you are looking for a hiking group, pick one other person, decide who will drive, and go have fun! The others will find you.

 

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Removing the Elwha River Dams, Olympic National Park

Posted on April 9, 2011 by admin

(The article that follows appeared in the March-April, 2011,  issue of Washington Trails, a publication of Washington Trails Association www.wta.org. I had such a good time researching and writing it, that I decided that it deserves a wider audience.)

The Elwha Dam and the Glines Canyon Dam on the Elwha River on the Olympic peninsula, both built without fish passages, prevent salmon from returning to their historic spawning beds. Although state law at the time the dams were built, between 1910 and 1927, required the construction of fish passages, Thomas Aldwell with his Olympic Power and Development Company did not comply. Power generated for homes and businesses in the region and as far away as Bremerton trumped the needs of the diverse animal and plant life of the river valley, and the traditional life of the Lower Elwah Klallam people.

At one time, chinook, coho, pink, chum and sockeye salmon, some weighing as much as 100 pounds, swam up the Elwha to spawn. Where hundreds of thousands of smolt, young salmon, once left the mouth of the Elwha to enter the Pacific Ocean and return to spawn in one to five years, now fewer than 3,000 salmon return just to the first five miles of river.

In 1992, through the urging of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, the National Park Service, conservation groups, the dams’ owner (Crown Zellerbach Corporation), and concerned citizens, Congress passed the Elwha River Ecosystem and Fisheries Restoration Act. The goal of the act was to restore the valley’s ecological health, not to destroy the dams, but after studying alternatives involving installing fish passages at one or both dams, it became clear that only the removal of both dams will lead to a healthy river system, including the restoration of the variety of fish runs.

Before the dams can be touched, however, the engineers, biologists, and other researchers must carefully prepare. Forty-three different projects have been recognized, from identifying and protecting the tiniest of insect and plant species to radio-tracking large mammals to levee improvement to returning the floor of the emptied reservoirs to their pre-inundation state. School children, through the UW College of Education’s Learning in Informal and Formal Environments (LIFE) Center and with the assistance of the Olympic Park Institute, have been involved in collecting baseline data. Two treatment plants to protect the water supply to Port Angeles and the surrounding area have been constructed.

For a while it was feared that while Congress had passed the act, there would be a long wait as money gradually became available. Then through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, stimulus funds made an immediate beginning possible, ahead of schedule. The actual destruction of the dams is scheduled to begin in September 2011, with a celebration at Olympic National Park.

At the higher Glines Canyon Dam, thirteen miles from the mouth of the river, the plan is to first draw down Lake Mills partway and then notch and lower the dam gradually, drawing down the lake at the same time. At Elwha Dam, the water of Lake Aldwell will be directed to flow through the western spillway while the dam is removed, and then the river will be re-directed to its natural channel.

Full recovery of the valley may take as long as ten years, but when the dams are gone and the lakes drained, the forty-five miles of river will be restored to its free-flowing state, from the peaks of Olympic National Park to the Straits of Juan de Fuca, as it was one hundred years ago. Sacred sites of the Lower Elwha Klallam people, now covered by the reservoirs, will be visible once again. Over the next three years, the world will be watching the largest dam removals the United States has ever seen. Lessons learned here, on dam removal and restoration, will be applied to other rivers nationally and internationally.

To see the river for yourself, contact the National Parks Conservation Association, www.npca.org, for their brochure, “A Driving Tour of the Elwha River.” For more details on the removal, go to www.nps.gov/olym.

Note: Resources used to prepare this article include the NPCA brochure above; the National Park Service brochure, “Freeing the Elwah, A Story of Dam Removal and Restoration;” Seattle Times “Dams get closer to demolition,” April 12, 2010; Columns, The University of Washington Alumni Magazine, “Education on the Elwha,” December, 2010; and conversation with David Graves of NPCA.

 

 

 

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Camping in RV Parks–Yes, Even in a Tent!

Posted on February 24, 2011 by admin

You don’t have to own a recreational vehicle to camp in an RV park. Many such parks have sites where you can put up your own tent, and some have cabins, yurts, or even RVs that you can rent for a few nights at a reasonable price. Some national associations of RV campgrounds are especially good resources for finding a camp if you want to spend time in an area that you don’t know well, or if you’re planning a leisurely cross-country trip. These camps usually have staff available who can direct you to interesting local scenic or historic sites. I want to tell you about three of these groups.

Ever since I started researching my book, Camping With Kids, I’ve been getting e-mails about Yogi Bear’s  Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts. They sound like so much fun! Jellystone Parks are called “resorts” because they offer so many of the amenities you would expect to find at a resort, like swimming pools, playgrounds, tennis and croquet courts, and planned activities, like barbecues and special parties. Some have shops and cafes. Many Jellystone Camps present themed weekends and special holiday events, whole weekends of fun, and not just for the summer holidays. You can find Hallowe’en, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s activities at some parks. And of course since they are Jellystone Parks, you have Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, and all their friends. Watch your picnic baskets!

Kampgrounds of America, KOA, is another association of campgrounds. Maybe they are not as elegant as Jellystone Parks, but KOA camps usually have a little grocery and notions store, laundry facilities, playgrounds, planned activities, sometimes a dog exercise area, sometimes a pool, and also sites for tents and yurts and cabins. KOA Kampgrounds have “unique” camp spots–an Airstream trailer? a caboose? a tepee? Have fun!

Woodall’s is the last association I want to write about.  Technically, I shouldn’t lump Woodall’s with KOA or Jellystone Park Resorts, because Woodall’s is an information resource, not an association of parks.  Woodall’s publishes lots of books on RVing, and camping in an RV. Woodall’s publishes directories of campgrounds all over the country and organizes tours for RVers. On the Woodall’s website you can join a forum for tent campers, where individuals share problems and solutions. (I got good information last year, when we were replacing our inflatable mattress.)It also gives other information for campers, including recipes and “bloopers” that are fun to read. Sign up for an e-mail letter that comes once a month, and check out Tent Camping.

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Reserve Your Campsite Now

Posted on February 15, 2011 by admin

The lights in the rest rooms stayed on all night long last summer at Honeyman State Park in Oregon, my very favorite place to camp. The lights were on, but that was the only light that came through the thick forest in which the campground lay. Walking back to our campsite on the dark road in the middle of the night, flashlight in hand, I thought, WHO CHOSE THIS CAMPSITE? That was a rhetorical question, I know my son chose it and he chose it carefully. He studied the map of the campground and found two campsites side-by-side, on a deadend spur road and not on a loop, and not too close to the entrance to the campground. Less traffic on our road, and less noise of cars coming and going. All well and good. But he didn’t look to see the nearest restrooms, which were about a block away,  a long walk in the middle of the night. So that is the first question I’ve given him for selecting our campsites for next summer:  how far from the rest rooms are  they? Noise and traffic I can live with, but not a long walk to the restroom in the middle of the night.

Which leads me to remind you, it’s not too early to start making your campground reservations for next summer. Some parks take reservations as much as six months in advance. If you plan to camp Memorial Day weekend, you’re already a few weeks behind. Popular campgrounds fill up early, and the choicest campsites go fast. Go online, find the campground of your choice, study the map of the campsites, pick one, and make your reservation. Read my book, Camping With Kids, for lots of good tips on making campsite reservations.

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