Lost Maples West Trail

After a quick trip down the road to collect email and download newspapers and maps, we returned to the Lost Maples Natural Area.  We have to move sites anyway, so leaving the park by a few miles to connect to the internet is not a big deal.  This campground is so busy that we are in four different sites for four different nights which means checking in at the office each morning.

We were to camp at site 30 tonight,  but we noted that a large group of scouts were camping in that area.  Lots of good energy, but we’re would prefer to camp further away.  At the office they said we should stop back after noon when they would know what “no-show”  sites were available.

Our plan today was to walk the West Trail in a counter-clockwise direction returning by the same route when we reached the steep parts.  However we talked with another older couple who said that the steep parts of this trail were not a problem, so we decided to do the whole loop.  It was a lovely tail.  Most of it is through river valleys and one deep canyon with one place where we climbed steeply to a hill, walked along the top of it, then descended.  The ascent was very steep, the descent was much less steep and therefore longer.  The entire trail was 5 miles and took about 5 hours.  

We drove back to the office where we were assigned site #16.  Nice site and level enough not to require leveling pads.

-- Janet (text) and David (photos)