Camping at Lake of Three Fires

This June we stayed a week at Lake of Three Fires near Bedford, IA. We were fortunate that the weather was 95% awesome during our stay. It rained the night we arrived--after we had all of our stuff unloaded, then it sprinkled a few drops the next day and was dry the rest of the week. The temps were also in the low 80s all but our last full day there (when it was 90 and breezy, but not too humid).

Lake of Three Fires is a small (no wake) lake with a swimming area and several jetties to encourage fish habitats and allow for easily docking or mooring your small boat. The park also has several miles of trails, but they are designed to be used by horses, so most of the loops are longer than 3 miles. So we only walked a couple of partial trails while we were there. In addition to the trails designed for horses, there's also a nice horse camping ring with little paddocks and everything.

We stayed in one of the parks cabins. There are 5 cabins with running water, air conditioning, and a kitchen (that has pretty much everything except an oven). The above photograph is our view of the lake from the cabin. As you can see, there's one cabin that has an even better view close to the lake.

There was quite a bit of wildlife at the park. Here's a shot of a woodpecker in a tree near our cabin.

This photo shows some of the many many of what we think were turkey vultures. On two evenings that we were there, the entire brood was gliding overhead. We counted as many as 53 one night.

The park also had trails that linked the cabin area to the non electric camping area to the electric camping area and then to the swimming area. The photo above is one of the views of the lake from these trails. On the last full day at the park, it was quite a bit warmer, so we tried out the swimming area, which was fairly shallow, but well kept.  All in all, I'd go back, it was a great relaxing week. If I had a small boat or a horse, I'd be even more eager to go back.

If you'd like to see more photos of our camping trip click here: Lake of Three Fires Album.

Spring Flowers 2016

The weather this April and May was perfect for our spring blossoms! Our Plum/Chokecherry trees went gangbusters and smelled wonderful.

We also went and took some photos of the Bradford Pear trees that the city planted at a local intersection. They create a beautiful canopy of white blossoms that you can walk under.

Our crabapple tree also blossomed well this year. The only ones that didn't do very well were the lilacs--hopefully next year.

Later on in the spring, our roses bloomed like crazy. There are three different varieties on the side of our house: light pink, deep magenta red, and these pretty variegated ones pictured below (technical names I know :)).

To see more of my spring flower photos, click here.