As Autumn rolls in, my heart has been yearning to head to the mountains and the great outdoors. Angeles National Forest is an easy Los Angeles escape and with the weather finally dipping into fall, I grabbed all the camping gear I have and headed to Angeles Crest for the night.

WHERE TO STAY

We stayed in Buckhorn Campground. I chose the locale because it was densely populated by Redwood Trees and Pine Trees (my 2 favorite) There are so many campgrounds in Angeles, but I wanted to be in an areas that was heavily wooded. I have such fond memories of camping in Yosemite as a kid and Buckhorn tapped back into that for me. We also chose this campsite because it was dog friendly and we brought our little goobers with us.

WHAT TO DO

HIKING! LOTS OF HIKING!I always turn to The Modern Hiker for hiking info and tips as he has all the logistical information you would need. We hiked the Burkhart trail as it was close to our campground and hiked out into the heart of the forest for a 3 mile hike. Our biggest concern were the dogs, they haven't been this far from home in a while but they did wonderfully and will soon be on their way to full fledged mountaineering pups!

CAMPING

The good and the bad

I have never been camping with pups before and this was certainly a first experience for them and I have to say it went pretty well, however this trip was more of a trial run in a lot of ways. That night the temperature dropped down to about 30 degrees. Us and the doggies were not wholly prepared for the cool temperatures. While we warmed up the pups in the car, we began to settle in our camp and start a fire and get dinner going. I have not had to make a bonfire in quite a while. we had the fire-starters and the wood, but our problem was our lack of kindling. oops :) Thankfully our whole campground was covered in pine needles and after the better part of a half hour we were able to get our camp fire to sustain its roar. Our next obstacle was opening the fuel tank for our portable stove. It probably took us 45 minutes to get it open due to freezing hands and not enough leverage. At the end of the night we were able to get everything going so I really cannot complain. Oh the life of the outdoors :)

It was a good trip

the next morning we woke up and packed up to leave with less energy than the day day before. The little pups would not let us sleep through the night. They have much more to learn about camping :) I recommend checking out Angeles National Forest on your next Autumn camping trip!