A new BMX track and a new campground made this one a relaxing weekend of firsts for our family.
Bouncing on a hayride, under a full moon. Your arm around my shoulder, don’t you still make me swoon.
It could’ve been a country song. Except I don’t really enjoy country music. Sorry. I did, however, enjoy our weekend at Boulder Woods Campground in Green Lane, Pennsylvania. Immensely. And the hayride, and full (well, it was really big and bright…) moon, and the arm around my shoulder, and Mike still being my favorite human….all facts. I couldn’t be happier that we decided to make a BMX state qualifier race in Pottstown, Pa a family camping weekend, and am thrilled it led us to our first stay at Boulder Woods.
Our depart from home was an epic feat of efficiency. We pulled out less than 15 minutes after my husband and oldest son got home from school for the day. But with a 2 hour and 40 minute drive ahead of us, we were worried about how much campground life we’d be able to enjoy on Friday night.
When we pulled up to the campground office to check in at 6:30pm, I vowed to the kids that we would make it all work: site set up, swimming, and registered and ready to play Bingo by 7:30. And we did it – all of it!
The weather had been unseasonably hot for a few days leading up to our trip. When we left home, it was 89 degrees, and all of us were excited to jump into the pool as soon as we arrived at Boulder Woods Campground. Our drive was spotted with heavy bouts of rain and thunderstorms that brought the temperature down 15 to 20 degrees on impact, and the radar indicated that the storms would be landing at the campground at 6:45 pm.
By some magical camping luck, Boulder Woods Campground didn’t see a drop of rain (though if Green Lane, Pa has been anything like home through May, they could probably use a good downpour). We were able to hook the camper up quickly, get all of the perishables moved from the cooler to the refrigerator, and get to the swimming pool.
Boulder Woods Campground is a beautiful place. Our site reflected the campground name perfectly – we were nestled in a thick grove of trees and surrounded on both sides by large boulders. The Boulder Woods common area includes a bath house, a campground store and deli, a “pool pavilion” where most events took place throughout the weekend, and three enclosed swimming pools with a great playground area. The pool set up includes a baby pool, a small “adults only” pool, and a large pool open to everyone.
After swimming for about 30 minutes, we moved straight from the pool to the pool pavilion next door for the night’s Bingo event. There was a bit of a learning curve for our family as we’re not what you might consider professional Bingo players. But two campground employees who were enjoying the games were a huge help to us, letting us know when to use the dabber paper cards and when to use the boards and chips. One of the wonderful employees even took over two of our family cards to help me out when our youngest son decided he needed to use the bathroom and my husband took him in the middle of a game.
The four of us had some really uncanny Bingo luck, and our little family won three of the five rounds of paper cards, which were the cash payout games of the night. The highlight, though, was our oldest son winning his FIRST EVER Bingo game in the final paper card round. It was a one card “cover every single square” round. After lamenting to us that he “has never won at Bingo and will probably never ever win at Bingo”, he was the first to cover his entire card in bright red dabber dots. He screamed out “BINGO!” just as the hayride began boarding for the 9 pm moonlit ride, and clamored onto the wagon in his (now, finally, dry) swim trunks, a wad of cash winnings in his fist. The stuff 9-year-old memories are made of.
The hayride was relaxing, winding through the campground in the dark. The moon was big and bright, our little family was snuggled up in a big pile of hay having enjoyed a great night of swimming, games, fresh air, and quality time together. It was truly idyllic. The irony: the PA turnpike is literally a stone’s throw from this quaint campground. But you would NEVER know – unless, like us, you had just exited PA 476 to get to the campground.
Everyone in our crew slept well that first night, and our youngest was up at the crack of dawn ready to cast a line in the fishing pond he was promised. We found the pond on the map and headed out, just the two of us, with our poles. It was a significant, but really enjoyable, walk from our site in the Hickory loop to the fishing pond, and we got to see a couple of the disc golf holes along the way. The fishing pond sits at the end of a long wooded path off the campground. We didn’t have any luck with our catch and release fishing efforts, but time spent fishing on a quiet, sunny Saturday morning with one of my three best guys is never wasted.
After fishing it was time to pack up and head to Trilogy BMX park in Pottsville, Pa. It was a state qualifier race weekend, and if our boys would like to compete in the state race at the end of August, they need to race 5 state qualifiers. It was a beautiful day for BMX – sunny, not too hot – and the Trilogy BMX track sits in a complex with baseball fields and a skate park where our youngest enjoyed toiling around on his scooter.
After a great racing experience for both boys and two trophies picked up from the awards stand, we headed back to enjoy the rest of our camping weekend at Boulder Woods.
Saturday night’s events at the campground included a chicken and rib dinner, live music, and a bonfire. We ordered one bbq chicken half ($6.00) and one order of ribs ($6.50) at the camp store counter, and swam in the pool until they were ready for pick-up at the pool pavilion at 5:30 pm. We took both back to our campsite and added some sides of our own for a delicious (and really easy) camping dinner. After dinner we went back to the pool pavilion to catch a little of the live music and bonfire. The boys were anxious to get back to our site though, and pick back up on their wiffle ball game with friends they had made at neighboring sites.
We finished our night with our own fire, s’mores, wiffle ball, and a little bit of cartoon watching on the tablet on top of a cozy boulder next to our site (the boys, not me and Mike who stayed by the fire).
While our weekend camping really couldn’t have gone any better, Boulder Woods check out time isn’t until 2:00 pm! We enjoyed sleeping in, playing more wiffle ball, and swimming for a full hour before heading out. With Bingo winnings burning a hole in his pocket, our oldest son spent a little bit of his newfound money on a magic trick set and a couple of prank toys that entertained us for a good bit of the ride home. Our youngest left with a new whoopie cushion. Classic.
With our site priced at $50/night (on a weekend nonetheless!), and our reservation made just one week before our trip, I could not be more pleased (or amazed, honestly) with our weekend of camping at Boulder Woods. I realized coming home on Sunday that I had truly relaxed all weekend long – and I don’t remember the last time my mind was free of any worry for a full two days. Boulder Woods was a delight of a campground, and we will definitely return.
