Persuaded Hubby to drive with me over to the big attraction of the Shawnee National Forest, the proverbial Garden of the Gods, a magnificent grouping of rock outcroppings that provide a fantastic view and a nice ¼ mile walk. We also wanted to reconnoiter the area to see about trailering the horses over tomorrow, since it seems there are bridle paths throughout the area. It was a great time, the walk and views were fabulous, and we found the trailhead where apparently horses were allowed. As we were driving back, we noticed a group of horse trailers parked along a bare patch of the road, we thought it looked like a private campground so we pulled in to chat. Turns out there’s a small cabin and a lot of corrals which are shared by a group of riders, kind of a neat cooperative! Anyway, they were very nice, very helpful, gave us some good ideas, showed us some maps, which gave us some ideas. They also recommended we check out Pine Knob, a private campground with well recommended trails (a passing ranger had said the same thing ath Cadiz Camp), so we headed out there, if nothing else but to satisfy our curiousity. It was closer to the camp than Garden of the Gods, but we had to go up several miles of a dirt and gravel road to get there. It turned out to be quite disappointing, actually, little more than an open field with horse trailers parked willy-nilly, a string of highlines along each edge of the parking area, no notable features except that scattered throughout the area they had humorously put up facades of typical wild west buildings, like “livery” and “jail” and “post office.” They had an actual camp store (essentially a metal barn), and we went in to get the particulars. Had a chat with a girl with a stud in her nose about day parking, and she was nice enough to give us a Shawnee Forest Map, and to sell us a map of the trails that are around their campground. I don’t know if it was partly because of the heat (it was pushing close to 100 degrees by then) or just the atmosphere of the place, but something just didn’t sit right with us about it, so we decided that rather than park there the following day, we would return to trailhead parking at the Garden of the Gods. We figured if we got there early enough, we would have plenty of room the park the trailer, even though the lot was just about full when we had gone through there earlier, no doubt busier than usual because it was Memorial Day weekend. We wanted to beat the heat anyway, so early it would be! After some initial reluctance, Hubby ended up enjoying the day, the walk, and the exploring, so we celebrated with a steak and had an early night.
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