Mammoth Goes to The Falls. The Big Ones. Day 16

 Wed 4 Oct

Through Columbus and Cincinatti to Grand Rivers, Kentucky. 

Crossing the Ohio River!

The river:

 

 

This Canal Campground (COE) in Grand Rivers is indeed as nice a campground as everyone said. However, the site I picked sucked sucked sucked!  Basically they paved a parking lot and put about 12 "camp sites" in a circle around the edge. Our utilities were on the wooded side and our picnic table in the middle of the parking lot. And it was packed full of old people, friendly old people I will admit, sitting out on their picnic tables. '

 
I don't hate humanity and I'm often making good resolutions to be more friendly with my fellow campers, but that doesn't mean I want so many fellow campers thrust into my face that I can't pick my nose without being on exhibit!  I got my chair out of the back compartment and hid on the woods side behind Mammoth, to get a little privacy.

The only thing I can guess is that I looked at the campground reviews and then chose a pull-thru site to make it easier for us to access after a hard day driving. Little did I realize that the site was so short we'd have to unhook just to squeeze into it, nor did I notice that the middle of the loop was empty asphalt, not a wooded area with trees and bushes.  I assumed the normal layout where they would have left a ring of trees in the middle and made the road loop around it.  Rather than just pave the whole blame thing!

Barkley Lake shots, in the gray weather didn't look great.
 

But then later Molly and I took a long walk in and around the campground, where we discovered that there were a whole lot of other camping loops and they all had lots of back-in sites that were just lovely, some with a lake view.  

We were on the shore of Barkley lake, up near the dam where the canal joins it with Kentucky Lake to the west.

So if we decide to come back--and I would definitely come back--I'll be choosing one of the camping loops with sites that are more spread out and have some privacy. There were lots of those.  Easy to get to from new Interstate corridor I-69 and I-24.

No birds to speak of.  I'm sure there were plenty around, I just didn't see any. But there were some deer for Molly. She likes deer. They run away when she barks at them.