One of the coolest things about the Arizona State Parks is that some of them offer cabins to rent. During this phase of life, it’s the perfect way to experience the outdoors and feel like we are camping without actually needing to take a 4, 2, and 1 year old tent camping. That has it’s merits, but this is certainly a lot easier!
When we have an opportunity to do it, I like to pick a state park and check the availability of the cabin rentals. This time, it was Dead Horse Ranch State Park. We picked a cabin and paid the fee, which is more than camping, but definitely less than a hotel or vacation rental. When the time came, we made coffees, packed the minivan, loaded up the kids, stopped at Bagelfeld’s breakfast on the road, and headed up north. It’s less than a 2 hours drive, which, again at this stage, was a perfect distance.
The cabin was so cute! It was tiny, but comfortable and had AC. We made sandwiches and made the beds before heading to the creek. The water was very cool, but refreshing the kids splashed around and looked for seashells (why are there shells in the creeks?). We headed back to the cabin to change and start dinner when we locked the keys in the car. Luckily, we had our phones still. I walked with the kids to the ranger station to see if they could help before figuring out the next step. Unfortunately, they were closed. But fortunately, Grant’s dad has AAA and they were able to come and save the day. We prepared for dinner while the kids scootered around the parking lot.
The kids and I looked for beetles, sticks, and rocks, while Grant set up the grill and started dinner. For dinner we had steak, asparagus, and a package of rice. Harrison had a peanut butter sandwich. We have a little Blackstone that is so nice for traveling and camping. I found s’mores chocolates at Target in lieu of making real s’more. We enjoyed those and got ready for bed. The bathrooms were impressive! They were very private and clean. They had multiple bathrooms, private showers, and changing tables. The walk to the bathrooms was always an adventure for the kids. Grant saw a skunk on the way to our bathroom trip after dusk, but no one else got to see it. Other than the heron down by the water, we didn’t see any other animals.
I don’t know about your kids, if you have them, but mine HATE sleep. Even after a busy morning, playing in the car, walking all the way to the ranger station, scootering around the parking lot, playing a rock game, and more, they still were not tired. Or at least would not go to sleep. Harrison wanted to sleep on the bunk, but the girls wanted to be with us. After a really long time trying to get them down, Grant took Vera for a drive while I snuggled with Frances. Eventually, everyone was a sleep and we had a few moments to read and scroll.
In the morning, we had ___ before cleaning up and packing up all of our stuff. We head to Clear Creek to play in the water before driving home. We have a big cooler from Costco that helps keep things really cold. We were able to pack sandwich supplies that stayed fresh through the night and while left in the car. For lunch, we made sandwiches in the car and ate them down by the creek. We had a pool floaty that we were floating down the creek in. Harrison was having so much fun. It was a great short trip to enjoy some time out of doors.
