Camping & cuisine at Dosewallips State Park

Welcome to Dosewallips indeed! This was our first camping trip as a family and were were REALLY thrilled to join in on a weekend with friend, friends of friends and their kids! Dosewallips State Park is just outside of Brinnon, WA on the Hood Canal, about an hour's drive from our home in Sequim.

We borrowed my brother-law's "camp" trailer, or condo on wheels as our friends said. It was perfect as my husband and I aren't the tent type of campers.

The Hood Canal area gets a fair amount of rainfall and it was quite lush. I went on several walks and this time it was with several of the tween and teen girls along the Dosewallips River.

Okay, let's head back for a late breakfast. These walks proved to be a nice break in between meals:)

I brought a TON of food, SHOCKER! Those that know me will be laughing at the image of the mamouth cooler stuffed, the fridge packed full and plenty of dried goods as well.  My worst fear is that we run out of food...it didn't happen this weekend...it's never happened. And yet, I continue to plan to feed unfathomable numbers. Everyone has there achilles heal and this is one of mine.

We each had signed up for parts of different meals and I was bringing muffins/pastries for breakfast.

For my pastries, I brought Bisquick, milk, eggs, frozen blackberries, oatmeal, cornmeal, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, vanilla and butter. I pretty much followed the pancake recipe on the box but didn't add as much milk and added more eggs, brown sugar, vanilla and cinnamon to the batter.

The semi-frozen berries were spooned into the center of the muffin batter and the "crumble" topping was added; cornmeal, oatmeal, nutmeg, brown sugar and melted butter.

The trailer smelled heavenly! My friends and family were pleased. The propane kitchen stove proved to be a single rack use only oven for baking as the second rack had a tendancy to burn the bottoms of the muffins. No one cared, the bar was really low as we were "camping" after all!!

Lots of dishes this weekend but we had water and sewer hook ups, so no worries! I did mention that we don't really want to rough it too much...

Another hike took us to the lower Dosewallips Falls. It was a short car/truck ride from the camp site and another short hike to the falls.

I was asked by the girls to go in with them, so I did! I took this picture after I had already dried off and could feel my toes again...this was glacier melt and MIGHTY chilly water!

The combination of hiking across the rocks and swimming in the frigid water left us ready for dinner! I signed up to bring hamburgers and condiments.

I brought our natural, grass fed beef hamburger from our family farm and embellished it with Dijon, Worcestershire, BBQ sauce, sauteed leeks, sea salt, fresh ground pepper, dried cumin, dried garlic and fresh chopped cilantro.  Think meatloaf without the egg and bread crumbs...not everyone likes grass fed beef but everyone who tried these "doctored" burgers raved!

My friend Boetina brought her cast iron, propane grill...AWESOME!! This piece of equipment saw some significant use this weekend!

All the "fixings" for our burger and some various veggies, fruit and junk food.

Friend Dale and I took turns grilling up the burgers and dogs. The cilantro scared some of the kids off, which left more burgers for the rest of us:)

WOW!!! The outdoor air and exercise made these burgers taste even better than when we make them at home.

Now that dinner is done, it's off to walk the dogs and watch the boys ride through a colossal mud puddle. They got so wet they took their shirts off. Oh, the simple pleasures of a 8-10 year old boy...

The boys were SOAKED when the daylight finally ran out (thank goodness) and we headed back to our trailers to clean up, get dry clothes on, apply copious amounts of bug spray on. The mosquitoes were ferocious!

Time to get out the cocktails for adults and the s'mores for kids of all ages. How much do I love s'mores...mmmmm.!

This was a fantastic camping experience for my family. I loved my borrowed trailer and visiting with friends. It has taken me a whole day to catch up on laundry, clean the inside of the trailer and unpack but I can't wait until we do this again!

Happy trails my friends!