It is summertime – at my house, we’re in full swing of camping time! I find that camping is good for the soul.
Around my house, that means as many weekends as possible, we’re camping somewhere. And we camp in a lot of remote places. And by remote, I mean dirt road, four wheel drive and reasonably high clearance vehicle and no actual facilities or running water remote. My husband and I have really enjoyed expanding our camping horizons and recently went to a place this past weekend in the Tahoe National Forest area – just beautiful. Pristine lakes. Beautiful plants. 
Amazing dragonflies and other creatures of God’s creation. 🙂 The photo to the right is of a dragonfly that was perched on the antenna of our truck while I was grabbing a change of clothes after swimming in the lake.
One of my teammates asked me what I felt like camping does for my soul and I thought it was a great question (thanks, Lindsay!) and here are my thoughts:
Camping is one of the truest ways to really connect with nature.
Especially in some of the places where we’ve camped: no facilities can mean you have to dig a hole to conduct your bathroom business. You may have to bathe in a lake (oh and did I mention that’s direct snow run off – BURRRR!). You can enjoy the surreal settings of a jagged mountaintop in the distance, or the close trickle of a waterfall that has been created by the passage of water over a small drop off nearby to your camp area (which by the way, is not a ‘designated camping area, it’s one of those you find a level spot to get your stuff into and set up camp where it looks like it may be appropriate–LOL).
The silence in a setting like this can be completely deafening or it can be a warm embrace of unplugging from society, my email, the grid and everything else. I find that in these settings, I really truly find out what I’m made of…when I’m hiking along a cliff face that drops off a thousand feet or traversing boulders that are larger than my car – I am able to tap into my faith and know that I can get through this. I remember once when hiking with my husband on a trail in Yosemite being afraid of the sheer drop offs to the right side of where we were hiking up several switchbacks (the lesser traveled trail versus the Mist Trail) – and thinking “I’m going to die.” I remember giggling to myself because I knew that was absurd – I immediately replaced that thought with “God isn’t ready to meet me yet, He’s going to keep me safe and He wants me to see all of this beautiful scenery.” And I find myself tapping into that statement often when I’m in a precarious situation hiking or a very remote setting where I’m not sure if I just heard a mountain lion growl off in the distance, or was that someone discharging a firearm several miles away? Things that really make you go “hmmm.”
These are the places my husband and I are able to capture some of the most amazing photos – things that are so surreal looking that even the photo doesn’t do it justice. The photo below sums that up in a sense. The scenery was perfect glass-like quality to the lake, beautiful cumulus clouds in the sky reflecting perfectly into the lake – just incredible!
I always return from a camping trip rejuvenated and ready to take on the world!
Check back on Thursday when I will reveal my packing, planning and resource ideas for camping – I will be sharing how my husband and I plan for a trip, whether big or small. 🙂
How about you? Are you an outdoor enthusiast? Do you love camping? I’d love to hear about it!