Mammoth Goes Birding…and stuff, Day 4

Friday April 11

Fairly short (3 hour 45 minute)  and somewhat bad drive--light showers and traffic horrible--to Cave City, where we located with some difficulty Dino Valley RV Park. Google took us to the parking lot in front of the RV park, but that was not anywhere near the entrance. It was probably the closest you could get, walking. But not a driving option.

It only took a minute or two of quiet zooming on the phone in satellite mode and a quick walk out to the street to see where the entrance was.

I’m not sure how to review this place. It’s very much “no frills”, but that’s not a problem for us. It’s a big graveled area, not very level, with lots of RV hookups. No trees or picnic tables or any sort of amenities and the gravel is a little uncomfortable to walk on, but there are points—(a) there are trees around the edges to scan for birds, (b) lots of grassy areas in and around the gravel sites, (c) water/sewer/electric hookups, and (d) not very many campers!  There are maybe five campers that seem to be semi-permanent occupants, but they are mixed in with all of the empty sites instead of tucked off to one area as you would expect.

It's right off interstate 65 which is both good for access but bad for noise. But not so much noise really.

If I had to speculate, I’d say this place is relatively new and they just haven’t finished with all the frills yet. There’s a walking trail marked along two sides—very smooth although just mowed grass. But it worked for us very nicely—it took about 20 minutes to completely circle the campground.

Unfortunately, the cool front appears to have succeeded in coming through and the temperature has dropped from the low eighties to the low sixties, with a light frost expected overnight. Very chilly to me. But Molly wants a walk now.

Our evening walk was unpleasant—a loose dog kept trying to come up to us. I thought it was a coyote at first, but it responded to a no-nonsense “no”. In the morning I realized it was a shepherd mix, like Molly, with tags. It appeared to belong to one of the nearby long-term campers.