Dinosaur Valley Camping Trip July 2021

Years ago, D and I planned on taking the boys to Dinosaur Valley State Park as the last stop on a long camping trip. We cut that trip short because of excessive rain and did not make it to Dinosaur Valley. We had a couple of free days in our schedules and decided to take the boys camping there in July 2021.

On our way to the state park, we stopped for lunch at The Koffee Kup Family Restaruant. The food was plentiful and delicious! Can you tell our boys were thrilled to have their picture taken?

After lunch, we had to stock up on treats for trip. We visited Wiseman House Chocolates and spent way too much on yummy treats.

The boys continued to be thrilled as we made them stop at the Dinosaur Valley sign. J2 was driving his own car with the other boys. They thought they were going to go right by the sign but we made them stop.

We saw the big sign for Dinosaur World and thought we would check it out. The gift shop was really neat to wander through. On the grounds, there were 100 dinosaur replicas. We decided to skip the walk through the dinos because it was $15 ticket.

The boys had fun poking around the gift shop. In this picture, they were burying their arms in polished rocks. 

We had a good campsite. The boys shared the tent. D and I set up the picnic table canopy over our hammocks for our spots to sleep.

It was a beautiful day for a walk. We found a couple of dinosaur prints. 

The boys spent quite a bit of time skipping rocks. They were competing to see who could throw a rock with the most skips.

This part of the river was really quiet. I asked D if we should grab a couple of chairs and sit under a shade tree. When I looked for a spot to set up the chairs, this lovely snake was there. We decided not to hang out in this area.

We did go swimming in the river. It was nice to cool off in the afternoon.

We swam for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, a snake swam right up to Boogs and freaked him out a bit. It got really close to him and then ducked under the water and disappeared. He quickly got out of the water and refused to go back in.

                                                  

We found a cute little toad at our campsite.

In the evening, we went for another walk. The sky was so pretty.

The boys ran around the playground like little kids. It was fun to watch them.

It was interesting to know that Dinosaur Valley State Park is close to a nuclear power plant. The signs gave information about what to do if there is an emergency situation at the plant.

We enjoyed our short camping getaway.