Summer 2017 Camping Trip - Day 3

The third day of our trip was another great day.  When we got up, we broke camp as we were heading to Georgia later in the day to camp there.  The first thing on the agenda was exploring Raccoon Mountain Caverns.  So we had to dress in long pants (shirts were optional in camp).

Brian, Carter, and Rylan had signed up to do a wild cave tour.  They had a private guide (yay for Mondays!) and got to suit up with some cool gear!

Brian and the big boys did the Canyon Crawl Expedition (the only wild cave tour Rylan was old enough for at the time).  It's 2 hours long and requires crawling but nothing too difficult.  The cave is not lit but everyone has a headlamp.  Here's a map of what they did (it's highlighted in yellow) ...

Brian was able to take some pictures with his phone of the boys.

Carter on the rope assisted climb ...

Rylan's turn on the rope ...

There were a lot of small spaces but nothing too tight.

Rylan ...

 Carter ...

Brian took a couple of videos of the boys as well.

While Brian, Carter, and Rylan were on their tour, Gray and I did the Crystal Palace Tour, which is the basic walking tour with walkways and lights.  It was really good and we did it alone with a guide.  She took extra time to find cave salamanders and point out other cool things.

While Gray and I waited after our tour, the super nice people in the gift shop gave us a free bag of sand to pan for gems.

Gray was excited to find some cool things!

Brian and the boys eventually finished.  They were all very dirty!  Here are the boys with their guide ...

After the hike we grabbed some lunch and then headed to Lookout Mountain for a hike.  We stayed away from the tourist entrances and parked at the Cravens House Trailhead.  Our destination was Point Park.  There is a small museum and overlook there.  Round trip the hike was a little over 2 miles.

There are some Civil War information markers along the trail.

Steps up to Point Park ...

The overlook ...

Chattanooga ...

Gray passed out on the hike.  Backpack naps are the best :)

After the hike we drove down to Cloudland Canyon State Park in Georgia (which was only about 30 minutes away).  We headed straight to the campground to set up camp.  We apparently wore out the big one!

We had a ton more room at this campground - the sites were much more spread out and really nice.  Harrison Bay was almost completely full and there weren't many people at all at Cloudland Canyon.

As soon as we would get food out at both campsites, the yellow jackets would find us.  The boys (and I) were not fans of them.  So the boys hung out in the tent while I prepped dinner and played cards.

There was a nice playground at the campground and we let the boys play for awhile after dinner.

Then we took a drive over to Main Overlook area to enjoy the gorgeous sunset over the canyon.

And then off to bed for us!