We forgot marshmallows. What kind of Scouts are we?

This narrow road into Devil's Den State Park has some pretty spell-binding twists and turns.  Our Nissan truck was pulling our very first camping trailer along this road. Along the way we ran across a state park sign by the side of the road that announced that the campground was full.  We just looked at each other and smiled.

If you look closely, you can see that the leaves on the trees are just beginning to change from shades of green to shades of red and orange and yellow.

The Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism says the Ozarks landscape begins changing colors the last of September and early October when Black Gums take on brilliant red tones; Maple and Hickory are in full color by the last week of October; and some 30 species of Oaks turn red the second week of November and keep their leaves for a month.

This is a scene alongside a 1.5 mile hiking trail that we anticipated exploring. 

Who needs reality TV when you have panoramic windows in your RV?  What fun it was watching these families set up their tents, put tablecloths on picnic tables and set up camp.

We felt lucky to get a campsite with electricity and water.  We felt luckier still that our neighboring campers (judging from the license plates, three families from Kansas) were family-friendly (meaning, the were not overly rowdy).

Part of our plan was to cook outside on the campfire at least a couple of times, starting with breakfast Saturday morning.

With temperatures in the low 40s, we were in no rush to venture outside and get the fire blazing.

This is our first attempt at tin-foil cooking. We've packed the Lumberjack - sausage, frozen French fires, chopped onions and tomatoes, salt and pepper, and cracked two eggs on top - in three layers of foil and set on the fire.

At the end of 20 minutes, we put cheese on top and resealed the package.

And here's breakfast - Lumberjack, fresh banana, extra-spicy tomato juice and fresh coffee - a hearty breakfast.

Without cell or Internet service, thank goodness our neighbors were entertaining. These young women made trip after trip into the woods across the road and carried back dead limbs for their own campfires. Hum, wonder what the men were doing? Maybe still sleeping.

 

Cold enough for jackets and vest could be the perfect camping weather. We didn't worry about bugs or snakes ... except the dead black snake squashed in the highway.

Isn't the campground lovely? It's just a beautiful setting in the valley along Lee Creek.

Devil's Den is a state park, and rangers were planning a program on bats for tonight. Too bad we had to miss it at the amphitheater.

Visitors are restricted from caves, because of the danger to the health of bats. But we were welcome to look in this bat shelter. No, we didn't see any.

This was our first camping trip in years, and we FORGOT several essentials, like this charcoal starter we bought at the camp store. Too bad it didn't stock dish washing detergent. Have you used shampoo to clean dishes or wash hands or ...?

We forgot lots of other essentials, like marshmallows or anything else for S'Mores, although someone was kind enough to leave marshmallow-roasting rods on the picnic table.
And they called Megan a Girl Scout.

But our trip wasn't going to be dampened by a few mistakes.

If those were our biggest problems, it was a great weekend. We were in for some real surprises.

 
Devil's Den was created by CCC workers in the 1930s and '40s, quality work that has stood the test of time.
The park is popular with college students at the University of Arkansas, and we ran into dozens of young people on the hiking trails, who were camping and hiking with their dogs.
More on them later.
Megan and Dwain