Driftwood Outdoors: A great chance to bond

Family camping adventure brings lifelong memories

A family camping trip is an incredible chance to bond while exploring places across the country.
A family camping trip is an incredible chance to bond while exploring places across the country.

Not much can bring a family together like an extended camping trip.

Having just returned from a week on the road with my wife and two daughters, I'm now further educated on the joys and trials of a packing four people into a small recreational vehicle for a long vacation.

Work was taking me to the Smoky Mountain National Park for a couple of days, so I thought what a great opportunity to extend the trip into a family camping vacation to one of the most beautiful places in America.

At the Outdoor Writers Association of America conference this past spring, I was introduced to the Winnebago Travato, which is a touring coach. It's an oversized van converted into a motorhome. It has a full bed in the back and a table system that folds down into another bed. There is a bathroom with a toilet and shower, a refrigerator, stove, sink and small cooking range. The compact Travato has everything we needed to be comfortable on the road.

Winnebago offered me a test drive, so I took them up on it. My daughters were giddy as they loaded their gear into our loaner RV. It was a mixed bag of camping supplies and dolls. They enjoyed watching movies on a flat screen television while buzzing down the interstate. And I enjoyed the fact that because of its smaller size the Travato didn't break the bank at the gas pump. We averaged around 15 miles per gallon.

Our first stop was Audubon State Park near Henderson, Ky. Deeply interested in art and conservation, John James Audubon's life is inspiring to us all. As a wildlife artist, Audubon is most famous for his "Birds of America" masterpiece, which includes 435 life-sized paintings. He also painted mammals. The beautiful park has an outstanding museum of Audubon's life.

The next stop was Mammoth Cave National Park. With over 400 miles of cave explored, Mammoth Cave is the world's longest known cave system. We stayed in the campground onsite and enjoyed the plethora of viewable wildlife, including white-tailed deer, turkey, raccoons and a coyote.

There are a number of different tours you can take through Mammoth Cave. We chose to take the Historic Tour. This adventure took us underground for two hours and introduced us to the most common areas of the cave and through some of the old mining operations that took place in the first years after the discovery of the cave. Everything has greater magnitude when you are young, so even though I was amazed by Mammoth Cave, my nine and eight year old daughters were just blown away by the experience.

Gatlinburg, Tenn., is a tourist destination with hundreds, if not thousands, of shops. It could seem like a nightmare, but the cool thing is, most of the shops and destinations are based around an old time mountain theme. I enjoyed a moonshine tasting tour they have in town. I'm sure it drives the old timers nuts that white lighting is now a commercialized tourism tactic.

The majority of our trip centered on the Smoky Mountain National Park. We camped one night in the park at Elkmont and then stayed at Fontana Village for four nights. We had a fire every night except one, saw half a dozen black bears and took in incredible scenery. I went ground hog hunting and fished three streams that resulted in zero trout but two broken fly rods. Somehow, I still considered the fishing a success.

Fontana Village is a magical destination. Situated in the heart of the Smokies, Fontana brings the entire mountain experience together. The lodge and cabins are rustic yet elegant. The people, food and amenities are all outstanding. With Fontana Lake, Hazel Creek and countless other small creeks around, the area is flush with fishing opportunities. It's definitely a place to return to again and again.

Traveling the country in a small RV was a dream come true. I've wanted to take a family vacation like this for years, and now that we have, I can honestly say it was one of the most fun vacations we've ever experienced. We had no way of getting away from each other and that made the experience all the more special.

See you down the trail ...

Brandon Butler, the executive director of Conservation Federation Missouri, is an outdoors columnist for the News Tribune. Contact him at [email protected].