Grover Hot Springs

If you're looking for an excellent family car camping spot where you can stay for several nights, Grover Hot Springs is IT. They take reservations, the campsites are excellent, and the  bathrooms have showers and laundry sinks.  There's a swimming pool and hot spring on site, a creek to explore, fishing spots galore, and even a short hike to a waterfall.  The catch is that it's over the Sierras on the Nevada side, so a bit of a drive ... but really worth it if you are going for a few nights.

We went in June with the Sorensen/Hiatt/Carlston clan. On the way up we stopped at Calaveras Big Trees State Park for a little diversion from the long drive. There's a reason why they call it Big Trees:
Calculating the height of a Big Tree:
Throwing pine cones at a Big Tree:
Sassy picture of our feisty girl:
We did let Blake out of the backpack to finish the hike with us:
He was a little selective about whose hand he would hold. Sophie seemed to be the favorite of the day (much to her pleasure). Notice the cold shoulder that Blake is giving Maddie:
Maybe it was the peekaboo game that was so endearing:
Two years ago when we were at Grover Hot Springs, Jeff and I drove around the campground and wrote down the numbers of what we thought were good campsites to come back to. Lucky us - we kept the list and the one combination of sites that were available this time turned out to be adjacent to "rock city." The kids spent hours climbing, exploring, pretending and staking their claim to the rocks. No bored kids here!
Livvy and Eliza were witches of some kind or another ...Other activities included ... Playing catch (and retrieving the ball from a high perch in the trees):
Fishing:
Hiking across the meadow to the ...
... swimming pool:
Relaxing in the hammock:
Hiking to the waterfall:
The best part of this campout was that we actually had some family members brave the distance and the dirt to come along. Amy and Maddie came for the first night, then my cousin and his wife and twin 3 year old boys came for the second night. It was fun to spend time in the mountains with all of them! Pete and Julie brought some amazing food and darling boys, so that made them especially welcome :)