The Great Outdoors

I am so glad that it is spring!  Now that the weather is getting warmer, and the school year is winding down, I can't wait to spend all my time outside.  Here are some of my very favorite places to go camping, hiking, and to have cookouts!

My family loves camping in the motor home at Jordanelle State Park.  It is the perfect place to relax with a good book and listen to the sound of the waves in the reservoir.  We try to go there several times in the summer and fall and my parents have been known to spend weeks at a time there.

One of the very first places we went when my parents got the motor home was to the Willard Bay KOA.  I really like the trees at this KOA and there are lots of wonderful roadside fruit stands in neighboring Brigham City.  We've been here several times.  (I am totally dying over how little Sean and Tashena are in these pictures).

Another really fun place is the Grand Tetons KOA in Wyoming.  We had a great time there in the motor home.

We have only been to Utah Lake once, but it is one of my most favorite camping trips.  The lake is beautiful and the camp sites have a lot of room.  The kids spent lots of time in the water and riding their bikes around the campground.

We love staying in cabins at the Fillmore KOA.  Go here to read about my most recent trip to these cabins.  They are extremely comfortable and all of the facilities are great.  The kids really like all of the great ATV trails.  The people who run this KOA are some of the nicest people and they know us by name!

One of my favorite sites for camping in a tent is the Granite Flats Campground at Tibble Fork Reservoir.  I used to bring my girl scouts here all of the time.  The sites are large enough for several tents and have firepits and picnic tables.  They are secluded so you have privacy and there is easy access to the water.  I have so many fond memories of fun camping trips with my girl scouts!

Two of my favorite hikes are Cascade Springs in American Fork Canyon and Donut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon.  Sometimes I just need to be in the mountains and both of these trailheads are about 30 minutes from my house.  They are both relatively easy hikes (when I want to challenge myself I hike Red Pine Lake).

On any random night in the summer, Marilyn and I will head up to Mill Creek Canyon for a cookout.  It is definitely my favorite place to go to get away from the world (I have so many pictures).  Sometimes we make dutch ovens, sometimes we make tin foil dinners, and sometimes we just make s'mores.  I am itching to get up there!

I am so glad that I live in such a beautiful place and that I have all of these wonderful memories of being in the great outdoors with my family!  Tashena recently told me that she loves summer because it brings us all together.  I feel the same way!  We are going on a camping trip next weekend and, even though it is only Tuesday, I am already counting the days!