Road Trip Day 1- Hershey, PA and Kentuck Campground in Ohiopyle State Park

We spent the first week of May 2018 meandering our way towards Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. We have a National Park Passport book that we have been collecting stamps in for several years. Steve and I got out of the house at about 4am with the car packed for adventure. We didn't really have a route just way points to get to as many National Park sites as possible and whatever else we may stumble upon. 

Camping is our thing so the first day our destination was a campground we've stayed at before called Kentuck Campground in Ohiopyle State Park Google maps said this would be roughly a 9.5 hour drive. Perfect! Well unfortunately living in New England, its pretty tough to avoid every major metropolitan area and not hit any morning rush hour by leaving New Hampshire at 4am.

 It was smooth sailing until just after Hartford, CT where we hit major standstill traffic. After an hour of that we were fine again and decided to head towards Hershey Park in Pennsylvania for a lunch break. We were a few weeks early to actually go into the park, since it wasn't open for the season except weekends yet, but the factory was open for sure. 

It took us till 1:30 to get there. Upon walking into the Visitor Center/Chocolate Megastore we were asked if we would like to help them test out a new tour for free. Super! We got to wear hairnets and Steve even got a beard net:

The tour was amazing. We got to design our own chocolate bars from what type of chocolate to the mix-ins and finally the wrapper. You actually watch your bar go through the assembly line and get to keep it at the end. We didn't since they were still testing everything that day and it wasn't FDA approved yet but I would do it again for sure. 

I was a little worried at this point about getting to our campsite and set up before dark. We did make it with about an hour of daylight left. Magically, going West the sun sets later!

We were in site 19 which was right next to a babbling brook. The place was basically empty and the walk-in sites where we've stayed before were not open for the season yet. Later we explored them anyway since we plan on coming back here. Sites 59 and 54 were super sloped but site 58 is just at the top of the hill so its mostly flat. 64 is by far the most private but has a loooong walk from your car. Here's what 58 looks like (at dusk):

When it got dark we heard some rustling in the brush. Checking it out, it was a couple of raccoons going from our brook into the campground. They were steering clear of us so we didn't mind them. Within half an hour we realized we were sleeping next to the raccoon super highway as small packs of them kept passing us. Still no big deal as all our food was in the car. Well come morning, Steve had left out a pot of water to heat up for hot chocolate, and I think a raccoon used it to wash his hands (paws?) or a toad or whatever raccoons wash that is super filthy cause now our pot was filled with dirty water. Our fault for leaving it out! 

Next up: Albert Gallatin's Friendship Hill NHS and Hocking Hills State Park