Camping in Cherokee NC

We had a great time this weekend with our friends, the Koehlers.  We went “camping” in Cherokee, NC at the Yogi Bear campground.  It was a really neat place with lots of fun things going on for the little kids. And our big kids enjoyed it too.  We call it camping because we cook outside and go to the bathhouse but we rented 2 sleeper cabins-one for each family.  The cabins had a bunk bed and a queen bed in each one along with an air conditioner and a TV for pete’s sake. And a ceiling fan and electricity of course.  While it makes it so much easier to pack and prepare for, we still had a vanload of stuff to take. Dale said we packed more for 2 days than we did for 8 days at the beach – and he was right!  One nice thing that we packed this time was the kid’s bikes. Thankfully we finally have a bike rack and was able to use it.
The first day we got there, we set up and looked around to discover what was available.  The boys ended up going in the creek that night until past dark when we made them get out.  We had a lot of trouble with keeping our fire going this time because the wood wasn’t cured yet, but Mr. Chris and Dale kept it going for us..with a lot of starter fluid. 
The next morning we got up and made scrambled eggs, bacon, and pancakes.  We always eat good on these trips and it tastes so good when you eat outside for some reason.  After breakfast, we went to the Mingo Waterfalls.  The kids biked there. The ladies hiked there. And the men rode there n the truck.  It was about 4 miles round trip.  It was kind of scary with us all going 3 different directions and hoping to end up at the same place with no means of communication or cell phone coverage. But we met the kids when we took a short cut through the woods and the men came riding up behind us after a while.  But once we got to the starting point, we had to walk up 160 steps to the falls. By the time the adults made it up there, the kids had been there for a while, and the boys were climbing the waterfalls. It was a huge waterfall and made me quite nervous but they did fine.  They also played in the water below the bridge for a while (and hunted gold!) and enjoyed that.

Then we headed back, everyone coming the same way the came the first time.  We blew up the inner tubes and got ready to do what the kids were looking forward to most…tubing down the river that was right next to our site.  I had wanted to get the same tubes as Tina so that they could stay together and had to go to 5 different Walmarts in my quest for some like theirs.  Finally, on the way up we found them.  But the first time down the river, Jennifer and Justin’s tubes deflated and they ended up having to get out. And then Brandon’s deflated too.  We pumped them back up and duct taped the valve to stop the leaking and they tried it again.  Chris would pile them and their tubes in the truck and they would go up river and then float down to Yogi Bear where they got out.  The next time it was fine except Jennifer punctured hers with a rock.. Luckily we had some backups and we blew one of those up.  Then the next trip down, another one got punctured. So, we blew up the other raft.  In the end, 3 of the 4 original tubes were punctured by rocks. But the kids had a blast tubing down the river all afternoon and evening. 


And they rode their bikes so much that their butts hurt! For dinner, we had campfire packets which consisted of steak, veggies, french fries and cheese in a packet of foil and baked potatoes.  And of course, you always have to roast marshmallows.  After dinner, some of us played cards while the others relaxed by the fire. 

On the way home, we stopped in Cherokee and went to a bear park where they had live bears.  It was really neat to see there bears and we got to feed them .These bears were so trained that they would beg for food and do tricks for the food. We had found them very entertaining.  We all had a great time interacting with the bears and even got to talk to one of the handlers for several minutes.

We really did enjoy the bears –feeding them and watching them play. The first video is one of the bears catching our food-which they were really good at doing. The second video shows Courtney and Jennifer getting the bear to do circles for a treat.

Then we shopped for a little bit before getting fudge which is a given for Dale when he goes to the mountains.  We drove down to the Nanatahala river where we had lunch on the river at the take-out spot for the rafters and canoers.  It was neat to watch them while we ate a good lunch.  We had stopped on the way up and watched them for a bit and really enjoyed watching the people come down the river. 

As always, we had a great time camping with our friends and thank God for beautiful weather and the beautiful world that he has made!