Cloudland Canyon

This weekend we went up to Cloudland Canyon to experience what they had to offer in backcountry camping. There are a number of sites with electric and sanitary for your RV as well as tent pads if you just wanna park and sleep. Previously we've visited their 'walk-in' campsites which are slightly closer to the the car than the backcountry sites. The park is frequented mostly by day tourists outs for a scenic hike. THe West Rim Trail (5mi) is described on the park map as among the 'most scenic in the nation.' While it is scenic, I suspect they mean the Dawg Nation. We found the backcountry loop of sites (2 mi) to be pretty quiet and to have some surprisingly good sites. Sites 1-6 are along a stream that was flowing during our visit in early March. Sites 7-11 are less desirable but all feature amenities like picnic tables and individual or shared outhouses. We took site 6 which is a little further back into the backcountry loop but was large enough for our two tents. Sites 1 and 4 also looked very good. The fire ring at six is superb and proximity to the stream is great. For dinner we fashioned a grill out of leftover aluminum foil and sticks. It worked well.

The weather was perfect for camping. not too cold at night but cool enough. The next day we headed to Rocktown, a nearby bouldering area.