It's January, so that must mean . . . camping!

Since moving to Idaho, our family has rediscovered a love of camping. (Well, my son says he doesn't want to go, but when it's time to leave, he doesn't want to go home.) Last year, we got in 36 nights of camping, starting in March and wrapping up our season in September.

This year, we wanted to get an earlier start, and you can't start any earlier than January. So, over the weekend prior to Martin Luther King's birthday, that's what we did. (I'm sure we must be certifiable, but no one has filed papers yet - and - they have to catch us first!)

For our first camping trip of 2008, we went back to the site of our first trip of 2007, Woodhead Park in Hell's Canyon along the Idaho-Oregon border. We hooked up our trusty tent trailer to our Subaru Outback and made the three-hour drive. Along the way, we questioned our sanity, as the thermometer inside our car registered a less than tropical outside temperature of seven degrees at one point.

However, as you can see from the view across the reservoir from our campsite, the surroundings more than made up for the slightly chilly temperatures. Plus, the temperature warmed up some 25-degrees by the time we reached our destination.

On our first night in the campground, we shared the facility and the view with one other couple. On Sunday, the campground was all ours. In between, some three-inches of new snow fell, enough for my son and I to take a stab at making a snowman. During the weekend, we took dozens of pictures, some of which I will work on posting somewhere on line as I get time, and we ate some very good food, if I do say so myself.

I suspect we'll be back yet again and soon. I also hope this will be the start of a wonderful, jam-packed camping season. May your travels take you to equally wonderful destinations.