Great Salt Plains State Park

We took Telsa on her first camping trip to Keystone State Park because it's so close to our house and we could just camp one night. She did a great job so we decided to try out taking a longer camping trip. When we got home from camping at Keystone we decided on Great Salt Plains State Park as our next destination and booked our campsite online. Ty took Friday off work so we could travel Friday and spend the night Friday and Saturday nights. Everything got a little crazy when he got laid off at work the Thursday before our trip and then interviewed and was offered a job the following morning on Friday. He was a bit emotionally exhausted but decided we should go ahead with our plans, so on we went! I love being able to book a campsite online, especially during this pandemic, but it makes it a little tricky trying to locate your campsite when you haven't been there before. It took us a bit to find our campsite but once we did, the kids were thrilled that we were really close to a little beach and there was a tree bent toward the ground, perfect for climbing! I loved that we had a view of the lake from our campsite. It was beautiful. One of the best parts of the trip for me was watching the sunset over the lake as we sat around the campfire!

Playing on the beach.

Elise wanted to help us stake down the tent.

The big thing we were excited to do at Great Salt Plains State Park was dig for salt crystals. The digging isn't actually at the state park it's on a wildlife preserve near the park. Saturday morning the kids wanted to play some more on the beach and created "Bug Town" for lady bugs. There were tons of ladybugs on plants either on or near the beach so the kids would take the ladybugs and put them in their bug town. They named the lady bugs and made up stories about who was married to who and what their personalities were like. It was so much fun to watch them. We wanted to get to the digging area before it got busy so we'd be able to keep our distance so we left a little after 8am. It was so neat to pull into the salt plains and see the ground was white as far as the eye could see, all due to salt! When we got out you could look at the ground and actually see the salt, it was so pretty! They recommended digging a 2 foot by 2 foot hole to allow water to seep into the hole which aids in digging. Ty brought a real shovel for himself and I bought some gardening spades from my grandma for the kids to use. The kids enjoyed digging in the spots they picked and then moving on to already existing holes from people who had previously visited to dig. Eventually we moved all the way toward the back of the digging area to get further from other people as more families started to arrive. As I walked toward the back with Tesla I saw salt crystals barely buried in the top layer of salt. We found most of our crystals there just barely covered in salt. We even found some of the hour glass crystals we saw when reading about the digging area. Tesla was a good girl the whole time! Eventually the kids got tired and I got hungry so we headed back to camp. Ty wanted to buy some firewood so we stopped at a store and I picked out ice cream from the freezer for us to eat on the way back to camp.

Saturday afternoon the kids spent more time playing on the beach and adding to their Bug Town. After lunch we headed out to take a hike. The hiking area was beautiful! We saw the spillway while hiking and wanted to get a closer look so we went down to the spillway. There were more people over there which made me a little nervous because some were sitting right in the way to where it was difficult to keep your distance. Other than that we enjoyed looking at the dam and spillway. Ty got excited when he saw fish jumping up out of the water and wanted to fish there so he went fishing later while the kids and I played on the beach some more. We were going to swim at the swim beach but it was pretty packed and I didn't think we'd be able to keep our distance very well so we just swam by our campsite. The water wasn't deep at all and Elise and I were able to wade out really far into the water. During all our time playing on the beach we saw quite a few snakes swim by in the water. Carter was so scared of the snakes, he didn't want to go out in the water. Tesla hates getting baths so we really didn't think she would go out into the water but she happily came along with me and Elise. When we got out to where she couldn't touch anymore and she had to swim, she wasn't as happy to be with us, but she still wanted to come with us. Later I gave her leash to Carter so he'd have company on the beach and she cried the whole time because she wanted to come with me and Elise.

For Mother's Day my parents bought me a camping cookware set with a dutch oven, skillet, and griddle. We didn't expect it to arrive in time for this trip so we planned out some foil packet meals and things we could cook on our skewers. The cookware came a few days before we left so we switched the foil packet meals to the skillet. I made dinner in the skillet Saturday evening and we had sausage, potatoes, and corn. It was super yummy. For dessert we had foil sundaes again, this time with cherry pie filling. After dinner we were back on the beach for more playing and wading. Our campsite was perfect for us with access to a beach. It was a huge hit with the kids. We enjoyed watching the sunset as the kids played at the beach. I didn't know it, but Ty took a picture of Carter with the sunset in the background and I took a picture of Elise with the sunset in the background.

Sunday morning we woke up to extremely strong winds! It was like the tent was going to blow over. It was also a little chilly. When Carter got up he asked if we could leave in the morning instead of staying for lunch and we decided that was a great idea. Ty made us a skillet breakfast with ham, eggs, and hashbrowns. After breakfast I helped pack up a bit and then headed out for a trail run while Ty and the kids packed up the rest of the stuff. Ty is such a bad ass that he not only didn't mind packing the car on his own, but offered to do so so I could run and we could still leave early. I was so glad because during our hike the day before I got really excited over the idea of running on those trails! We've really enjoyed getting to use this family isolated together time to go camping. The weather has been perfect so far with warmer days but still nice, cool sleeping weather at night. Ty's work schedule is a bit different right now so that will make it harder to get more 2 night camping trips in. Unfortunately many of the state parks we are excited to visit require a 2 night minimum on the weekends, so we'll see if we get another camping trip in before it gets too hot in the summer. I sure hope we can!

Ty making us breakfast.

View of the spillway during my run.

Elise fell asleep in the car on the way home.