Family Reunion Camping Trip to McCoy Creek

For the last couple of years we have started making it a tradition to gather with my parents and all my sisters and their families to camp together for a weekend in the forest to celebrate my dad's birthday and enjoy our family relationships.

Usually we camp in a tent, however this year Tanner had been lobbying for a camp trailer and was vigilant in his search on Craig's List.  We decided if we could find a trailer that would fit our basic needs: bathroom, fridge, stove, furnace, and shelter and we could find it for a minimal price that we wouldn't care how small or old it was because we would still kick the kids out to a tent.  We were having a hard time finding a trailer that would meet these requirements in our low price range that wasn't a total wreck.  I had given up and was ready to tent it.  However by some miracle the week of our camping trip Zac came across this beauty and not only does it meet the basics, but it could fit our whole family if needed (though it would be tight) and even had a updated and nice interior and air conditioning.  We love it so much!

Whitlee, Bronson, and Charlotte were the most excited because they had never slept in a camp trailer before.  They thought it was a great adventure!!

The boys did plenty of fishing all weekend.

And we also took our family on a little ride to Caribou City, an old ghost town in the middle of no where.  It was a beautiful place, but would have been a very difficult place to have built a large city.

This is what I learned about Caribou City.  Caribou City was named after Caribou Jack who discovered gold on Caribou Mountain above the town. Almost immediately a town arose overnight. It was settled in 1897. It was mainly a tent town and later had 1,500 residents, a close competition to the residents of Eagle Rock(Idaho Falls)and Pocatello. There was 1,673,892 dollars worth of gold that was deposited from the mines around Caribou City. In 1900, a post office was built and at the time, Caribou City boasted 32 whorehouses, saloons, and gambling dens. There was about 700 Chinese miners who inhabited Caribou City over the years. In 1930, the last resident, who was at the time 96 years old, was moved to nearby Swan Valley, where he lived with family members. At it's prime, Caribou City was one of the biggest mining camps in the American West.

This is the last remaining structure and it wasn't much to look at.

We loved running through the little creeks that ran through there looking for any gold nuggets just sitting there.

However, if we had found any nuggets, we would have had to leave them there as these areas are still mined and held by mining claims.

The little girls had so much fun painting faces and nails and even talked Uncle Greg into painting his nails.  I wish I had taken more pictures of the kids at the campsite, but we really did have so much fun playing with cousins, playing in the forest, and eating lots of snacks.  Family reunions are really just the best.