Backpacking Providence

We had a couple of days out of school over President's Day weekend, so we decided to go on an overnight backpacking trip with our friends.  We went to Providence Canyon State Park.  This was the first time that me or my kids had been backpacking or camping, and I think we did pretty okay.  We checked in on Friday.  The weather was lovely so we decided to explore a couple of the canyons before heading to our campsite.  

We had to haul our stuff about three miles before we came to our campsite.  We were pleasantly surprised to find a shelter.  It was suppose to rain the next morning, so this was a fortunate bonus.  After setting up our tents, the kids began working to make a ditch that would divert water away from the shelter in case of rain.  They worked on this project for quite a long time.
 

 As it got later in the day, we gathered firewood and lit a bonfire.  This was a big hit.  The kids took great joy in manning the fire.  Since we were only staying for one night, we had a light supper (we had loaded up on Zaxby's before hitting the trail).  Once it got dark, the kids went into one of the tents and played Uno.

We finally turned in around 8:30.  This was the part that I was nervous about.  Sure enough, Owen got upset about being in the dark but it didn't last long.  He was asleep within ten minutes.

We woke up to the sound of thunder the next morning and were once again thankful for the shelter (and for the boy scouts whose Eagle Scout project this was).  We packed up our gear and hiked back out.  There was a light sprinkle during our return hike which caused us all to look like wet rats when we were done.

The final verdict?  Well, both kids have said that they would like to do this again, so I guess that means that they had a good time.  I did too.  This was a new, challenging experience and I always like those.