Dark and Stark

Thursday, August 4, 2022 - Friday, August 5, 2022

Our second-to-last stop on the 2022 road trip would keep us in Vermont. Because of our decision to spend an extra night in Burlington, it meant that we'd spend one less night at this Vermont State Park in the southwest corner of the state: Molly Stark State Park.

The decision to stay at this park was one of convenience. We knew our limits of traveling and camping with the girls, so we weren't looking to drive too far. And with us only spending one night here, we were glad we weren't driving much.

We knew nothing about this park other than checking out some campground maps and local hikes on AllTrails. Coincidently, I did stumble upon this Reddit post just before leaving., which gave us some interesting background on who Molly Stark was and why there's a park named after her.

This post will be fairly short.

We arrived in the mid-afternoon and got to our site. It's a very small and wooded park in the mountains. As we were setting things up, we could hear rumbles of thunder and see dark clouds approaching.

The girls played for a little bit at the campsite, but we also knew rain was on the way. Cooking at the campground was going to be out of the question, so we went online looking for food and drinks somewhere.

We ended up finding a brewery and pizza place called Beer Naked Brewery. It was about 5 minutes from the campground and at the top of a mountain, which made for some cool views.

It was also dog-friendly, and Lily was so well-behaved. Miss that dog.

We watched the storm roll in and hung out until it seemed like things settled down. But by the time we got back to the campground, another storm came through. After a day of traveling and no chance at a campfire, we called it an early night.

Some of us called it an early morning.

With us only in the park for one night, we pretty much packed up and made our trek southward back into Pennsylvania. We'd be staying at Promised Land State Park on Pickerel Point. It looked really cool on the map and online: a lakefront campsite.

This would be the last time we'd see Dana on our trip. Promised Land isn't too far from her place, so she decided to head back home a night early. Before doing so, she snapped this photo of the family.

Next up would be that campground. We'd only be there for a night, but we knew we'd want to return.