Memorial Day on the Allegheny National Forest, Salmon Creek

My little family of four usually goes camping on Memorial Day weekend.  Up to this point we've always gone to an established campground with showers, and dumpsters, and noisy neighbors.  Raccoon Creek State Park is our usual go-to.  But this year I convinced my wife to try "dispersed camping" in the Allegheny National Forest near Marienville.  This was our lovely spot right on Salmon Creek.

Nights up there are dark!  My three ladies went inside the tent to read before bed, and I sat out by the smoldering orange fire as it burned low--to the right of the tent.

Salmon Creek and Salmon Creek Road.  Naturally, there are no wild salmon anywhere near here.  They ought to call it Trout Creek.

And it was a lovely place to sit and contemplate life and the world.  Fishers in gaiters did wade up close to our campsite--which I didn't love.  But the spot was so perfectly beautiful and secluded.

I spent four nights here.  My kids spent three.  My wife spent two.  This is the closest I've ever gotten her to any kind of backcountry camping.  The car was only a few hundred yards away, parked up by the road.  It was kind of the best of both worlds: the big tent, all the coolers, and the bag chairs, and the campfire menu.  It was a lot like car-camping.  But no noisy neighbors playing classic rock.