Raccoon Creek State Park in June

We had some good friends, Heather and Hyrum who lived in Austin with us. They were always planning some fun adventures even with the kids, so I asked her to do a guest post. I hope you enjoy her adventures in Pennsylvania!  The following is a kamping with kiddos post from Heather!

Thanks to Kelli for inviting me to share an experience from our family camping trips. We have taken all of our kids on camping trips pretty early in life. We’re definitely not as rustic as Clint and Kelli though.

We went camping in June to Raccoon Creek State Park outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with our four children, ages 6, 4, 2 and 1. The weather was lovely, highs in the mid-70’s and lows in the 50’s.

The highlights of this trip were the beach and a little hike we took around the lake. The beach trail was about .3 miles of downhill from the camp site. The trail was well kept and easy to follow. Charlotte-2, tripped a few times so make sure you have band-aids. This way took about 15 minutes.

The beach has nice sand that goes right into the water. There is little shade nearby so next time I would bring a beach umbrella. There is a bathhouse close for changing and showering off as well as a concession stand down the road. We liked what we saw and headed back up the hill after doing a little wading. This time we took about 20-30 minutes.

Our big hike was the Wetlands Trail--1.2 miles. We took this to Nichol Rd, then the Heron trail (.5 miles) until meeting back up with the Wetlands Trail to our car. It took us about three hours to do the whole trip, maybe 3 miles altogether. The Wetlands trail is categorized as easiest hiking by the park and while the terrain is fairly level and easy, the trail was overgrown with wild raspberry bushes and other thorny vegetation so long pants are recommended.

The Wetlands trail winds around the Upper Lake in the park and then into a valley to meet up with Nichol Rd. The first part of the trail is wide and easy. It is through long grass and we got wet from dew--I was wet to my waist by the time we finished hiking the trail. We enjoyed seeing some herons, frogs, and a water snake. The vegetation got fuller about .75 miles in and stayed that way up until the last .2 miles or so on the Wetlands Trail. There were a couple of large dips as well where the trail comes quite close the bank of the lake. The vegetation made it difficult to see and at one spot Hyrum took a spill with Spencer-1 in the kid pack. Nichol Rd is a wide gravel road with a gradual uphill when headed toward the Heron trail. The heron trail was mostly down hill as we headed down to the Wetlands trail. We thought the Heron trail was easy due to the lack of vegetation. The whole trail was also very shady.

I find that one of the best things to remember with kids is always have food and water. Those two things can calm just about any complaint. Camping with kids is a fun and worthwhile experience. It was nice to unplug, talk and play games together as a family. It requires flexibility and patience, but is well worth the work.