Had the awesome opportunity of going camping with my husband’s family this year. It’s an annual tradition on their part but this was my first time attending. It certainly was an experience, I don’t think I’ve been camping since I was about 5 or 6 years old.

But I enjoyed it. Huge family gathering in the mountains, no cell service, no internet, if you needed to make a phone call you had to drive down to the ranger station to use their phone. It was a completely tech free  vacation… except for my camera.

To be honest, I was a little worried about sleeping in a tent. Mainly I was worried about falling off the inflatable mattress! But I was glad we weren’t sleeping on the ground, it was freezing at night. One thing I was not expecting, were the pretty frequent visits from Black Bears. They generally skirted the edges of the camp ground but always managed to slip away before I had a chance to capture them on camera, only picture I got below is pretty blurry but managed to see this bear cub as well.

Of course seeing a couple of bears right outside your tent door so to speak (it was really probably 200 feet away) made it even harder to sleep at night.

But anyways. Other than the wildlife and cold, the trip was over all very fun, I can’t wait to go again next year. We had fun in the streams, checked out the nearby historic sites, and just overall had fun. I also caught up on some reading. I will admit, this was a much needed, reprieve from the harsh realities of life. Didn’t have to talk to anyone on the phone or have customers yelling at me for trivial things. I wish I could do this once a month.