This year our annual camping trip brought us to a new Massachusetts State Campground. It also brought us the opportunity to try camping in a yurt. Using Reserve America, we found Otter River State Forest in Baldwinville, MA. This campground had four yurt sites and one was available the week that we needed.
None of us (my sister Mary and her friend Cady joined us) had ever been in or seen a yurt up close. So we weren’t sure what to expect. What we discovered on Sunday afternoon was very cool. The four yurt sites are on their own little road, up a hill. Ours was set back from the road by a driveway. The yurt itself is about 20’ in diameter and comes equipped with two sets of bunk beds (doubles on the bottom, singles on top), a large table with two benches, a sky light, track lighting, a ceiling fan and built in electrical outlets. They also provide a dustpan and brush for sweeping.
It didn’t take us too long to get the cars unpacked, and our beds made up. Putting sheets on the top bunks was a bit tricky because the mattresses are set into the frames. Although, figuring out that the guardrail was removable made it much easier. It didn’t take Norah long to find the ladder and to climb up onto her bed. I brought her a special Elmo blanket to help her settle in to a strange sleeping environment. It occurs to me now that this is the first time we’ve slept away from home that she hasn’t used the Pack & Play.
Once we were unpacked and the beds were made, the big girls & I headed out to the grocery store. Tom & I had preplanned a menu for the week, which made the shopping much easier. The girls picked out a few snacks and some items to fill out their vegetarian versions of our meals. On our way back, the girls and I also picked up some wood for our first campfire of the week.
I really can’t say enough good things about this campground. The sites are divided up between four small looped roads, plus the road up to the yurts. There are a few buildings with flush toilets, but only one with showers. This happens to be the closest building to us. The bathrooms are clean, generally have toilet paper and the showers are HOT! I can honestly say that I have enjoyed taking showers here. Often, camping showers are a necessary evil more than an nice experience.
Just down the road from our site and the bathhouse is a beach beside a small fresh water pond. I think Norah has decided that it’s her beach. She enjoyed digging in the sand and playing in the water at least once each day. In fact by mid-week, we started leaving our sunshade set up on the beach since we'd go back and forth from site to beach multiple times each day.
Across the pond from the “campers” beach is the “day use” beach where folks from the area can pay a daily fee (I think $5) to park and use the beach for the day. We can walk across a bridge that spans two waterfalls to get from one beach to the next. On Monday, Tom took the kids over to see the waterfalls and they saw a huge spider climbing up the side of the bridge.
We met some nice people, however the campground was very quite during the week. It appears to be a popular weekend destination, especially for young families. Friday and Saturday night the campground was full.
Tuesday morning we decided to check out the nature trail that started in the campground (about 80 feet from our site). It turns out that it’s a 2 mile trail trough the woods (moderate terrain) that runs between Otter River State Campground and the Lake Dennison recreational area. We hiked about half way before turning around as Norah was getting tired. She walked most of the way out, including up and down some fairly uneven terrain. She seemed to like being in the woods (except for the “skeeto-s”). She would become very concerned about fallen trees (“tree fall down”). Along the way we saw a toad hopping across our path, we heard a bullfrog and some blackbirds and we collected pine cones. Norah also liked having a walking stick in her hand, like Daddy. I carried Norah most of the way back because she was tired and because at her pace, the mosquitoes had a much easier time catching up to us.
Norah slept well at night, but getting her to nap in the Yurt didn’t work too well. We resigned to taking her for a ride in the car each afternoon to get her to sleep. That coincided with runs for ice and firewood. On Wednesday, it gave Tom & I a chance to wash some laundry. We let the big girls stay at the site to work on their puzzle while we went to wash clothes and get some supplies. We stopped into Smith’s Country Cheese for a second puzzle some yummy cheeses for that evening’s appetizer. We also picked up a few items at Walmart and some salmon at the Hannaford’s. We decided to amp up dinner a bit since Jon was going to join us on his way back to Canaan.
Thursday we spent the day at Davis Farmland. Norah has an absolute ball feeding the animals and playing in the water.
On Friday we took a ride further west in Massachusetts and returned east through New Hampshire (to avoid construction related traffic on Rt. 2). We stopped at Gary's and had ice cream for lunch.
Saturday we enjoyed a lazy day at the beach and in the Yurt working on the second puzzle (Historic Massachusetts).
Each night we had campfires; the girls made s'mores, Kate worked on her knitting and Tom did some reading. We listened to the Red Sox games on the radio (which I do not want to discuss any further).
We Sunday came we were a bit sad to be leaving our yurt, but we were all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds again.
We will definitely camp at Otter River again!
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