Checking Out Chester

Free weekend?! You all know what that means. It's time to book another camping trip! Thanksgiving festivities had wrapped up, and after a great week of food, drinks, and fun with Randy and Keith, it was time to hit the woods and have more food, drinks, and fun! 

well...Luna and I had fun...

Since the sun sets so early this time of year and it's hard to see at night setting up the trailer, we decided to try a quick trip to Chester State Park. We always passed the exit for it on our way to other state parks and mentioned that we should go.

The park is about an hour and a half from home, just over the South Carolina border. We loaded up the truck and trailer and headed out. A big rain storm was coming through that evening, so we were racing the weather to make it there before it hit. Parking a trailer in the dark isn't fun...but rain AND parking in the dark is even less fun. Luckily, we made it with minutes to spare, and as soon as we were set up, the clouds let loose. We hunkered down inside with a movie and drinks while listening to the rain on the trailer.

The next morning was gorgeous! Birds were back to chirping, and there was nothing but blue in the sky. We sat outside for our morning coffee.

This campground was fairly small with maybe 25 sites total and not as private as some of the other ones we've gone to. Our neighbors on one side of us were packing up, so we sat and had coffee admiring their little trailer like the nosy campers we are.

After coffee, we hit the ground with a walk to check out the lake and trails. Turns out Chester State Park is the "2020 Most Improved Park," and quite honestly, I believe it. They had beautiful sitting areas and community fire pits that looked lovely and some really nice, clean bath houses. We roamed the grounds admiring all the new features before walking the trails around the park.

The park is huge. I encourage any Disc Golf fans to check it out. They had 2 different courses that looked awesome. They also had a beautiful event building that overlooked the lake, but of course, that was sitting empty thanks to COVID.

As we finished our walk, I may have mentioned that a burger with a runny egg on it sounded really good. Well, that's all Cameron needs to hear before it's game on. Rather than go eat at a place, since there wasn't much around, we decided to make our own campfire runny egg burgers! With a quick trip up the road to a Walmart, we grabbed what we needed to make a delicious dinner. Once we returned, I decided to go for a run around the campsite, while Luna and Cameron cheered from the comfort of their chairs. 

Look at that support.

We spent the evening enjoying drinks and cooking runny egg burgers with bacon. All our neighbors did the same. One site was smoking some type of delicious meat that made us envious, while others had everyone in the universe over for a party (Yay for following COVID rules!). Once the night died down, we headed inside to sleep off all the delicious food and drinks.

The next morning we woke up early to do one more hike before heading back to reality. The park ranger at the campground store mentioned a hike that lead to a dam, so we headed on our way. The morning had some fog over the lake that was burning off, which made the hike look eerie but also really cool. It was the perfect little hike to end our awesome weekend get away!

Chester State Park is definitely a fun trip. Cameron and I both said that we would recommend it in the fall, especially where it's so close of a drive. I'm sure there's a lot more activity in the summer months. Stay tuned for our next blog of holiday travels to wrap up 2020!