Late season camping is often times the best with very little crowds and the parks all to ourselves. Our friends the Brant's have recently upgraded their pop up camper to a rather luxurious RV that they can all use quite comfortably. They were nice enough to invite us along to a weekend at Meramec State Park for a weekend of relaxing and sight seeing in the park.
My parents were in town for the Thanksgiving Holiday and have expressed a desire to come out in our RV and is turned out Core'y mother and step-dad were also coming so it seemed like the perfect set up for the weekend.
Late in the season the animals that live in the park are less afraid to make an appearance and we had many deer coming and going during the weekend.
It was also the start of the deer hunting season in Missouri and I think they know they are safe in the Park, as there is no hunting in the State Parks
We arrived on Saturday afternoon and got eveything set up and just relaxed and chatted
This was the weekend before the "Super" moon so we watched it rise each evening getting closer and closer toward full.
The evening sunsets were bright with many colors
The fires were always very warm and conversation continued into the evening.
Corey brought enough firewood to keep us going the whole weekend
the whole weekend had great weather and each sunrise was exceptional
Out campsites were right next to the Meramec River. flowing well and looked pretty in the early sunlight, but much to cold to swim!
Missouri is known as the cave state and we have thousands. the limestone along the rivers make for excellent cave formations and there are several that you can explore in the park.
Missouri's Black Bear population continues to rise (good thing) but this means bear encounters might become more frequent and everyone should be more Bear Aware in the campgrounds. A feed bear is a dead bear!
Corey and his family were kind enough to cook big meals for everyone Friday and Saturday night. both meals were fantastic, but with any kind of food smells comes the "tiny bears" the real thieves of the campgrounds- the Racoon and Possums. This guy was bold and obviously used to where he could find food.
While their was some activity, this weekend revolved around just relaxing and for Corey and I comparing various craft beers.
My parents coming from Florida for the Holidays are not used to change in temperature, and while it was a delightful weekend, they were freezing, but we had enough to keep them nice and warm.
As I mentioned the campground was pretty empty, but I was surprised at how many tenting campers there were in the park.
By the time we left on Sunday we were some of the last people in the Park.
Special thanks to the Brant's that made this a wonderfully relaxing weekend.
