South Dakota Day 2: Glamping

Camp set-up the first night was easy peasy. We all got a great nights sleep and slept IN until 7:30! Then we realized what we forgot…there is always something right? Read on to find out what it was.

Our plan for the first full day at camp was to enjoy the great outdoors and chill!

Check out our digs! Sleeping quarters are in the pop out sides and middle part has table, sitting bench, bathroom, kitchen. We don’t use the bathroom unless we are somewhere that doesn’t provide them. Luckily this spot has a decent vault.

New to our camping adventures (besides the pop up camper) are the following upgrades:

Hot water shower, solar power, hammocks, tv/DVD player in the camper!

Oh man there is nothing like having a hot shower after a long day playing in the lake and sun! Chris rigged up an instant hot water heater to replace our solar heated shower packs we used to use in the privacy tent.

Then there is the solar power panel we now have to charge our camper battery during the day.

Probably one of the most unnecessary items we added is the tv! Funny thing is we forgot all the movies! Guess if your going to forget something that’s not so bad (unless your Rowan). Luckily we realized that Penguins of Madagascar was still in the tv from when Chris was testing it at home. So I guess its Penguins or nothing.

Last are the hammocks. I can’t begin to tell you how much fun these have been for the kids! Glad there are lots of trees! They keep the kids occupied during down time at our camp site.

We spent the day on the Kayak and Paddle board exploring the lake and hidden caves only accessible by water, hiked around the camp area and to the waterfall we could hear from our campsite (which was actually the spillway for the dam) and got lots of fishing in!

We all caught at least one trout and kept two that were large enough for a side dish at dinner! I baked trout for the first time over campfire, along with hamburgers and hotdogs followed by warm peaches and s’mores for desert. Camp cooking is new to me, but I think I’m getting the hang of it.