Jamaica Car Camping

Mrs and I took a trip to Vermont back in June. We were again in Jamaica State Park at a leanto site on the river called Birch. This would be her first stay at a site on the river. I had stayed here the previous year on my solo trip in May. The stay ended up being more of a hang around camp trip, which was just fine. We had good weather the entire stay, save for a brief shower the first night.

Birch is a really nice site amongst the river sites with good spacing between other sites. Though we believe any of the river sites would be just fine, Birch and Ash are probably the best ones. Ash is the first in the line of the river sites and has the pavilion and small nature center next to it. It is closer to the small bathroom by the day use parking area, so is a bit more convenient at night for that, and the pavilion isn't used all that much, so you virtually have no neighbors.

This is the first trip that we used our new Mountainsmith tent. It was time to replace our 25+ year old tented we are happy with this one. There are doors on the right and left sides, so no need to crawl over any tent mates in the middle of the night when nature calls.

  Mrs brought her hammock along, which was a welcome addition.

 Harry and Luna hanging out in the Forester. The dogs much preferred to be in the car, and spent the nights in there.

 Loads of chipmunks this trip.

We had a great variety of birds in the park, mostly heard and seen from the site.  In the center of this image is a pair of scarlet tanagers. I logged 35 species in the immediate area.

 The multi-use trail along the West River is a great place for a walk, run or bike with beautiful scenery. Harry and I went for a run/walk.

 Quick selfie with the boy before the mosquitos tried to carry us away.

Harry was getting hot so I let him take a quick dip in the river.

Luna had a better idea. Snooze at the campsite.

 The only hike we took was the Overlook Loop from the campground. We try to do this one every time we are there, at least once. It was a warm one as you can see by Luna's tongue action. We took a good rest at the top for them to cool down.

 View from the overlook.

 Mrs and Luna taking it all in.

Heading back down.

All in all a good trip. We did a lot of relaxing and enjoying the river. We definitely needed a trip with no schedule or list of things that we wanted to do.