Every year, as summer winds down and the camping season comes to an end, I yearn for one more outing with the trailer. This year, that last camping trip took us just a little over an hour from home to Black Nugget Lake, so named because the park and the adjacent Coal Creek Golf Resort were built on the site of a former coal mine.

Our youngest son and his family joined us for the weekend and together we enjoyed games of ladder ball, bocce, and tether ball. Nate also got both of his older kids out on the lake in our kayak. If you look closely, you can see him and our grandson, Yari, in this photo.

Lots of time was also spent relaxing as demonstrated so well by our granddaughter, Harlow!

After the family left to return to the city for work and school, hubby and I stayed on for an extra day to do some hiking and kayaking. Unfortunately, the trails that were promised on the campground map were unmarked and badly overgrown. We followed one of them as best we could for about twenty minutes before it petered out entirely and we returned to camp.

Kayaking was much more successful. The long winding lake, a haven for waterfowl, was fun to explore.

In addition to Canada geese and a variety of ducks, we saw numerous Greater Yellowlegs, a fairly large shorebird, as well as a stately Great Blue Heron. “Hank the Heron”, as Harlow dubbed him when she and Nate spotted him from the kayak, was standing guard on a tiny gravelly island when we first saw him. When we got too close for comfort, he flew off, but landed on the lakeshore where I was able to get close enough for a few more photos.

Greater Yellowlegs

Great Blue Heron (with a Greater Yellowlegs in the foreground of the first photo) 

We managed to spend a total of thirty-five nights in the trailer since the first week of June this year. Although we don’t expect to take it out again this season, we do hope to do some day trips that will include more hiking and kayaking. Fall is definitely in the air and nights are getting chilly, but I’m hanging onto summer as long as I can!