If you’ve followed our last two road tripping blogs, you already know that we’ve done a little book shopping and cave exploring, so by the time we got to our home for the weekend, we were tired. It was time for some relaxation before heading out to explore and hike at Douthat State Park the next day.
We found the perfect home for the weekend: The Cottage at Oak Hill Farm. A relaxing and peaceful location not far from Douthat State Park, this small cottage was a great home base for all of our exploration. It was very rural, but knowing that ahead of time, we packed a cooler for dinners, snacks, and drinks since there are no nearby grocery stores. When we are on vacation we like to keep the cooking to a minimum, so my wife had made a lasagna ahead of time for dinner. All we had to do was reheat it in the microwave.
The cottage is on a working farm, the front porch overlooks hills and you can see nearby mountains. Although it is close to the main house, the positioning of it makes you feel like you are all alone. The peaceful sounds of birds and crickets and bright stars at night make it easy to want to stay a while longer than you planned.
After a restful sleep, we were up and ready to explore Douthat State Park. You could certainly fill an entire day at Douthat State Park. We started off renting a paddle boat and wandering around the lake. The littlest Jones enjoyed looking for fish and dipping her hands in the water while commanding us to paddle faster. We traveled as far as our legs could take us in an hour before heading back to the dock. In addition to the paddle boats, canoes, water bikes, and paddle boards were also available. There were many people who brought their own equipment to explore the lake and we also spotted some fishing going on too.
Then we looked around the small sanded beach area of Douthat State Park which wasn’t too full in the morning, but by lunch time was crowded with visitors taking advantage of the last full week of summer. At Douthat State Park’s beach amphitheater, we listened to a talk about butterflies and then ate a picnic lunch on a patio near the camp store. Afterwards, we grabbed a trail map from the counter at the camp store and did a hike to a scenic overview. Not as frequently maintained as other trails we’ve been on, the trail did have some branches and shrubs that you had to move out of the way, but doing so was part of the fun. And tiring. After the hike, we decided to drive through the Douthat State Park and out the southern exit. There are some other beautiful hikes in the park, like Blue Suck Falls, but those are a little longer and more challenging than what we were looking to do.
After our day at the Douthat State Park, we considered heading over to Hull’s Drive In to catch a movie, but decided instead to spend the evening playing Ticket to Ride and Catan on the porch of the cottage.
