Bear Lake Vacation - Day One - Getting There

I'm so excited to tell you all about our trip to Bear Lake. This trip has been something I've wanted to do for YEARS so to finally do it was a dream come true. 

But first let's talk about why this trip was so important to me. 

I was about 16 years old the first time my family visited Bear Lake. We stayed at Sunrise Campground in the mountains above the lake. I'll never forget the first time we came down Highway 89 and I saw the lake. It was so blue. So pretty. It was absolutely stunning. 

We came down from our campground a handful of times during the 5 or so days that we camped there. We'd drive to the day use area along the west side of the lake and play for hours. I loved how shallow the water was. We could play and swim without worrying about it getting deep. It was so much fun. 

Fast forward a few years to the winter of 2006/07. I lived in Logan which was only about an hour away from Bear Lake. Brandon and I were dating and we drove over to Bear Lake and looked at the ice. Even in the winter it was pretty. 

Brandon and I were married in May of 2007 and that summer we were able to go to Bear Lake with my family. This time we stayed in a cabin that some family friend owned. We'd drive down to the beach and swim. One evening we went to the North Beach and swam while the sun set. It was one of the most beautiful sunsets I ever saw. 

The next year Brandon and I planned a day trip to Bear Lake with his family. We all met up at the State Park day use area on Rendezvous Beach and had a great time. This is when the idea of camping at Rendezvous Beach started percolating in my mind. We were at the day use area, but I could see down the shore to the shady camping areas. I thought "One day I want to camp down there. It must be amazing to be right by the beach." That was in 2008.

The next year we did another day trip to the lake with some of my siblings. (I actually have a really early blog post about that trip. You can read it here.) By this point visiting Bear Lake was pretty much a given. Brandon and I agreed that we'd visit Bear Lake once a year no matter what. 

And then we didn't go back until 2018. Oops.

Babies, and more babies, and moving thousands of miles away just made it impossible to visit Bear Lake. 

We did visit the Gulf of Mexico a lot while we were in Texas and Alabama so we did have some pretty great experiences with water. But there was a part of me that still wanted to see Bear Lake again. 

So when we were settled in Idaho we planned a day trip down there in 2018. Brandon was busy with school and I had work and we couldn't nail down dates in time to get a camp site so we just did a day trip from Logan. It's probably good that we didn't camp because we ended up picking the COLDEST day that August. We went to the beach, and played for 2 hours, but ended up FREEZING. I actually caught a cold from that trip. (This post talks about our Bear Lake trip toward the end.)

I still wanted to plan a camping trip to Bear Lake, but things kept getting in the way. We were moving in 2019. There was a pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Things looked kind of possible in 2022, but I missed the reservation window for the one weekend that would have worked to visit the lake that summer. I thought about trying to figure out a Plan B, but Brandon wisely reminded me that we were going to Lagoon a lot that summer and so maybe Bear Lake could wait another year. 

That fall I was able to attend the Gathering Saints Leadership Retreat at Bear Lake. It was so lovely to see that lake again. When my kids saw my pictures from the retreat they started asking when they could visit the lake. (Mostly they were motivated by the slide that was inside the house I stayed at.)

And that brings us to 2023. I really wanted to make Bear Lake happen this year. 

I'd looked at the calendar and decided that we should aim for a camping trip to Bear Lake for Friday June 30. Reservations at Rendezvous Beach come available on a 4 month rotating basis. So campsites for the end of June would be available at the end of February. I put a reminder into my phone for February 28th and hoped for the best. 

I actually thought I'd missed it. I didn't remember to get onto the reservation site until around 9:00 am on February 28th. I thought for sure all the sites would be gone. But I think that the fact that February only has 28 days while June has 30 might have made some people forget that they needed to make reservations on the 28th.  There were lots of tent sites available. I couldn't believe it. What's more is that I could also make reservations into July. 

At first I was just hoping for a site for one night. But I saw that I could get reservations for the nights of Friday June 30th and Saturday July 1st. I figured we'd come home on Sunday July 2nd so Brandon could go to work on Monday the 3rd.  

And then I remembered that Brandon had that Monday off!!!!!  Brandon's work is kind of ridiculous about vacation days. So when they'd released the time off calendar for the year it had been a big deal that they were letting the employees off for the 3rd as well as the 4th. I'd made a mental note about that and remembered it just in time. 

So I found a site that I could reserve from June 30th through July 3rd. I can't remember if there were sites available for the 4th or not, but I already had another idea percolating for the 4th so I didn't worry about that day. 

And then there was nothing to do but wait and slowly get more and more excited. 

It's kind of funny how various family members react to our vacations. I'm ALWAYS the one that plans things and books things and gets everything set up MONTHS in advance. It's just a little too long range for most of our family members to appreciate. But Derrick is always pretty willing to get excited with me. He liked to read "Bear Lake" written on our calendar. And he liked to find Bear Lake on his map of Idaho. 

Brandon usually gets excited about our trips about 2 weeks before they happen. He'll be like, "Oh wow, we are going to Bear Lake in 2 weeks. That's so exciting." 

Charlotte and Lydia play like they are indifferent teenagers, but they usually get excited in the days leading up to the trip. They know I plan stuff they like so even though they act like they don't care - they really do. 

And Veronica. I'm not sure Veronica knew much about this trip. She was just kind of like, "Oh we are going camping. Okay."

We took care of grocery shopping on Wednesday night and then we packed everything Thursday night. I drove to work on Friday with all the camping gear piled in the car and in the roof top carrier. 

After work I took the kids to the dentist. (We broke the no cavity streak with two small cavities.) And then we just had to wait for Brandon to come home. The kids probably asked me a billion times when he'd be home. Which is kind of crazy because we got home from the dentist at 12:00 and he was due home at 1:30. 

I kept the kids busy by giving them small jobs to help us be ready to leave as soon as Brandon got home. They helped me with things like the last of the dishes, taking out the trash, making sure the windows were locked shut, picking the last of the strawberries, and other small things like that. 

Brandon came home, took a quick shower, changed into vacation clothes and then we were on our way. 

Our route would take us from Twin Falls, to Pocatello, to Soda Springs, and then down to the very southern tip of Bear Lake. Oh and I have to mention. I could have booked us a site at the Idaho State Park on the East Beach. But those sites have ZERO shade. So even though we are trying to do mostly "Idaho things" this year, I wanted shade enough to cross into Utah. 

About halfway to Pocatello I remembered that I'd completely forgot to pack the hotdogs when I packed the cooler full of food from the fridge. So we stopped at Walmart and Brandon and Derrick ran in to buy those. Here's a picture I took of us girls waiting in the car. This is a good reminder of another reason this trip couldn't happen last year. We didn't have enough room in the Pilot to fit all of us and our camping gear. Now that we have the van we have enough room. Yeah, we were still packed to the gills, but we had room for things like 5 gallon water jug and the canopy. Those things would never have fit in the Pilot. 

We drove from Pocatello to Soda Springs. We got there just in time to see the geyser go off. 

Charlotte wanted to take funny pictures.  She'd come here for girls camp earlier in the month and everyone had taken pictures like this. 

And this. 

Derrick looked at the geyser and was like, "I remember this!"

Here's Veronica taking a funny picture. She said she thought this place was in Yellowstone. 

A train went by and Derrick loved watching it. 

Here's another picture of the geyser. It's so pretty.

The water was done shooting out by the time we walked around to the top.

Veronica looked down at the car below her and yelled, "It's over Anakin, I have the high ground." I laughed. 

Then we drove to Hooper Spring park. We stopped at the bathrooms first and then the kids played on the playground. 

They were all trying to balance Brandon on the teeter totter. 

I love how all 4 of them will still do stuff like this. 

Then we went to Hooper Spring. Going here was actually Derrick's idea. We've been here as a family before, but I wasn't really considering it for this trip. Then Derrick got out the kids phone and showed me a picture of the spring that Charlotte and Lydia took when they came here for girls camp. Derrick said, "I want to go here again."  I was like, "Oh yeah, we can do that on the way to Bear Lake."

Here's Derrick with the spring. 

We filled up our water bottles from the spring and then added some Root Beer flavored drink mix ins. The naturally carbonated water and the mix ins made the water taste just like rootbeer.  Everyone liked it except for Veronica who said it tasted like rocks.  

Root beer would end up being our unofficial theme for this vacation. 

We had to go to the bathroom again so I drove over there.  Charlotte and Lydia rode over with their heads out of the sunroof. 

Then we drove south. We passed through Montpellier and Paris and the kids were like, "When do we get to see the Lake."  All the kids had to pee so we stopped at a little gas station. And then kept driving.  Eventually we could see the lake on our left. That was exciting.  It was also good to see that the lake was much fuller than it had been when I was here in September. It still wasn't full, but the water was higher. 

I thought I could make it all the way to the campground without needing to pee, but Rendezvous Beach was much further from Garden City than I thought. I ended up pulling over at a day use area and using the vault toilet there.   

The kids all got out of the car and ran for the water. 

Then we kept driving and made it to Rendezvous Beach. We checked in at the entrance station and got our little campsite sticker that said we'd be there until the 3rd. It was so nice to get that sticker. 

Then we drove over to the Cottonwood Campground and found our spot. We were at site 14. We parked in a parking spot with the number 14 painted on the ground and then we found the picnic table with a 14 on it. 

After we found our spot we went down to the beach. It was so close to our spot!  Just through those trees. 

Being close to the water had just one tiny downside. The kids all disappeared down there while Brandon and I were trying to set up camp.  Like they were helpful with getting the canopy up and setting up the tent. But they didn't stick around for blowing up air mattresses and setting out camp chairs. 

I had to go down to the water and get mad at them. It wasn't a great way to start the trip, but it did send a message - Mom and Dad will NOT be doing all the work on this trip. You guys are old enough to help too. 

It was like 7:00 or 8:00 at this point. We'd been snacking all day, but we were in need of an actual meal. I went to the little campground store and bought firewood and Brandon made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and had those for dinner. 

And then FINALLY it was time to go down to the water to play. 

The sky was just like how I remembered it when we'd been at the North Beach in 2007. I loved seeing the sunset on the water. 

The kids were a little leery of the water at first. I'd told them it was shallow for a long time, but they didn't believe me. And it was a little cold. So they started out on the shore. 

There was a big hole with water in it. The kids like that a lot. 

The kids became more comfortable with the water. Soon they laying and swimming in the water. 

Veronica kept yelling "this is the best lake ever!" and "Thank you mom for bringing us here."  This is what I live for as a parent. 

There were many other campers up at the campground, but we were the only people on the shore. It was lovely.

I was so happy that this could be our first night. I knew the next three days were going to be absolutely perfect. 

The kids played in the water until 10:00. I think they would have stayed longer, but Brandon and I wanted them to get out. We grabbed their clothes out of the tent and everyone changed in the bathroom.  (Which was heated and had flushing toilets.) Everyone was in bed by 10:45.  Then I started reading the kids The Hobbit. Most of them fell asleep before all 13 dwarves had shown up at Bilbo's house. 

I fell asleep thinking about how absolutely lucky we were to finally be camping near the shore of Bear Lake. I'd wanted to stay at this campground for 15 years and it was finally happening. 

I'll tell you all about day two in the next post.