Fall Camping at Dan Nicholas Park

Can we get a repeat of this weekend, please?

Early last week, Ryan and I glanced at our calendar and realized we had a completely free weekend on our calendar. We checked the weather and when we saw sunny skies, temperatures in the upper 60s and crisp, cool mornings and evenings in the forecast, we hopped on the Dan Nicholas Park website to see if any campsites were available. We nabbed the very last site and made our way to the campground ready for a weekend of campfires, fishing, exploring and outside family time.

We’ve tent camped with the boys before for Ryder’s birthday and Father’s Day last year but this was our first fall camping adventure. It’s safe to say we’re all big-time fans.

We returned to Dan Nicholas Park in Salisbury, North Carolina for our first attempt at fall camping for a myriad of reasons. It’s close to our house — about a 60 minute drive — and there’s so, so much to do at the park. For any local friends, even if camping is not your thing, Dan Nicholas is absolutely worth a visit as the charming park is home to multiple playgrounds, a mini zoo, gem mining, mini golf, paddle boating and more. (It feels like a step back in time as most of the activities are priced under $2 per person.)  The campground is located across a small lake from all of the attractions which we love as it makes camping feel secluded from park visitors but everything is still walkable via the lakeside trail.

We felt more confident going into this year’s camping trip as we tested all of our gear out last year and knew we had some winners on our hand. Our tent is seriously the best investment we’ve made in our camping adventures as it’s massive but ridiculously easy to assemble. Ryan had the entire tent set up for our family within five minutes of our arrival. Truly. It’s a gem.

The tent also has zip-down dividers you can use to section off the tent which we still utilized to create separate sleeping areas for Rhett on one side, me and Ryan in the middle, and Chase and Ryder on the other side. (For any camping enthusiasts with little ones, the tent is easily tall enough for a pack ‘n’ play!) And this mini noise machine was plenty loud for all of us to use in our tent and easily held a charge all night long.

We spent lots of time at the campsite as the boys were all about playing in and around the tent and building and maintaining a large campfire. They loved collecting little sticks to add to our fire, making s’mores (both traditional s’mores and Reese’s s’mores), lighting sparklers and snuggling under blankets to play the game “I’m Going Camping,” a classic I loved as a kid, too.

Our portable ALDI camping chairs I bought on a whim last year have held up well for the boys (they’re nearly identical to these camping chairs) and I cannot tell you how much I love the pop-up outdoor rocking chair we bought to bring to Chase’s soccer games this fall. It was the coveted seat at the campsite! (I was sitting in it to take the above pic but you can see it in the first pic of our tent.)

The small lake at Dan Nicholas Park is also a big draw for our family. The boys easily spent hours fishing, catching and releasing frogs, watching the ducks and exploring along the trail that wraps around the entire lake.

We encircled the lake many times during our camping weekend and plan to do our best to secure a coveted campsite on the lakefront the next time we camp at Dan Nicholas.

Our boys think nighttime at the campground is the coolest and the earlier sunset time worked in our favor in the fall as opposed to the summer when it doesn’t get dark until close to 9 p.m. With the skies pitch-black by 7:15 p.m. every night, the boys were thrilled to be able to be awake for a while with their flashlights, looking for nighttime creatures and walking along the lakeside trails.

We were the only family exploring the trails at night which was a perfect combination of fun and spooky for the kids. There were a lot of giggles and shrieks and flashlight beams darting all around the woods. Nighttime at the campground was a highlight for our crew for sure! Sleeping, on the other hand, wasn’t the best but we’ve come to expect that when camping with kids. We were up a handful of times with the boys to help with outside bathroom breaks, twisted sleeping bag issues, a pillow that fell off an air mattress, etc. Less-than-stellar sleep is well worth the memories for our family, though we’re in a phase of life where our kids are letting us sleep well at home at this point so we know we’ll be able to catch back up on rest soon. (I’m just saying this to say I’m not sure I’d be down for camping if I knew I was coming home to nights of broken baby sleep. Ryan called our Saturday night of camping the “night that would never end” as we were up so often and I couldn’t help but reflect on horrible sleep from our baby days. Yeesh. Ya just never forget that phase of babyhood! I am sending a little extra love to those of you in the thick of sleepless nights right now and know full-well they are so, so draining. I promise you it will get better!)

We arrived home from camping on Sunday afternoon and spent the rest of our weekend doing lots of laundry, unpacking and getting organized for the week ahead before doing our best to get everyone into bed on the earlier side of the evening, something that the time change thankfully helped us achieve!

As for the week ahead, this one is a little funky as all three boys are only in school on the same days for two days this week but I’ll do my best to check in on the blog when I can. I hope you all have a wonderful week and enjoy your Monday!