Author: Kim Siever

I took the three middle children—Regan, Ash, and Ace—camping to Castle Falls this weekend. The sites are first- come, first-served, so I took the day off in order to get their earlier than the after-work crowd.

We arrived shortly after noon and quickly set up camp.

We did a bit of exploring, and came across the water source. Here is Regan pumping out water:

We went for a bit of a hike, and found a great place to go swimming. It was pretty warm out, and we really wanted to cool off. Here we are hiking down to our spot:

Here is what the river looked like from our swimming hole:

The children a little apprehensive about getting into the very cold water:

Regan after going all the way under:

This is as far as Ash could make it:

Ace made it a bitter further:

Regan skipping rocks:

We stopped off at the falls on the way back to the campsite:

After supper, we took a trip down to the river, which was just a few dozen metres from our campsite:

It started raining in the middle of night. There was even a lot of lightning and thunder, which was pretty cool when it lit up the tent. Anyhow, the rain didn’t let up, so we had to skip the pancakes we had planned, broke camp in the rain, and we had apples and trail mix for breakfast before heading home.

Here’s the view on the way home.

It sure was a great time, and Mary fell in love with the site just by seeing the photos. She hopes to join us next year.

I took the four older children camping this weekend. Regan’s scout troop had originally planned to join with a local Cub Pack for a day trip to Writing-on-Stone. We heard a few other families were planning to camp overnight, and since we hadn’t gone camping in a few years, we thought it would be a great idea to camp ourselves.

I went onto the website for the park a few weeks ago to see what campsites were like and what facilities were there. I noticed there were only 5 unpowered sites left (we do real camping with tents, fire cooking, etc), so I decided to reserve a spot. It turned out to be a great spot, just a few steps from the outhouse, and a minute or two from the water source and the flush toilets.

A few days later, we found out the Scout troop decided to go on a day trip to Waterton for hiking instead. I left the choice up to Regan to go camping instead of hiking. He picked camping (that’s my boy).

I took the day off work yesterday, so we could get packed, and we left around 15:30. Shortly after we passed New Dayton, about 45 minutes out of Lethbridge, I realized we forgot the reservation papers. We turned around and headed back home. We were back on our way with papers on hand. It’s a good thing we went back because the campground was full.

We arrived around 18:00 and set up camp.

Once all the tents were set up, we got a fire going, and had hamburgers and hotdogs  for supper. We didn’t eat until 20:00 or so, and after we washed up and I got the bed ready for me, Ash, and Ace, we sat around singing songs and telling stories. We went to bed around 22:30.

We got up before 7:00 this morning, and I got a fire started. I knew we’d have to meet the Cubs at 10:00, so we wanted to get things going. I made pancakes over the fire for the children and I cooked eggs for myself.

While the children were taking down the tents, I washed the dishes. We broke camp about 9:45, packed up the van, and joined the Cubs.

We started off with a hike down the 1.7 km Hoodoo Trail. Ash, Ace, and I had a late start, so we only made it 1.2 km before we met up with the others on the way back. I was proud of Ash, who at only 6 years old made it the 1.2 km there and 1.2 km back without complaining and being able keep up. They are quite the hiker! Even Ace was a trooper, making the first 1.2 km leg without complaining. Only 3 years old, they couldn’t make it back, so I carried them on my shoulders the rest of the way.

Everyone ate hotdogs and watermelon for dinner, then we hiked up to the visitor centre for some activities, then played games in he hoodoos.

Ash and Ace were a bit too young for the games, so we hiked and climbed around the hoodoos. It turns out that Ash is not only a great hiker, but they are an amazing climber. I never had to help her up once, even when the spot was very steep and there seemed to be no toeholds. There were like a little monkey. Even Ace was pretty impressive, following Ash everywhere and needing help a handful of times.

Anyhow, after the games, we all packed into the van, and we headed home exhausted but happy. Everyone had a blast. We really need to do this more often.