Kanaskat-Palmer State Park, ADA site #21 Campground||Muckleshoot (Coast Salish) land
September 19th-21st, 2025
Wow, our first camping trip in several years! I was so excited, that I basically couldn’t sleep from the time I made the reservation until we went, haha. Since it had been so long, I kind of packed absolutely everything I thought we might possibly need. Oops. At least it was with the intention of paring down for the next trip, though.
The kids’ grandma helped me get Majel, my 2003 Toyota Highlander, all loaded up. Having someone to help with these things really helps keep my energy levels from getting depleted too quickly. Once we were all set, we carried the kids out, and got their Sleepypods all buckled in.
Sieh yelled a couple of times as we were pulling out of the driveway, but other than that he was really chill. I made sure to play the Music for Cats CD (that I helped crowdfund!) and kept the AC on for most of the trip so that the kids wouldn’t get hot. I also have little window shades I can still see through but that block the sun.
I definitely froze from the AC, though. My hands were actually so stiff from the cold that I could barely get my mask on as we were approaching the check-in window at the welcome station, let alone the trouble of getting my ID and disability card out of my wallet, haha.
Got to our site around 3:30pm, and had only just barely gotten started setting up when our friend who is camping the first night with us arrived. Got the pop-up catio set up and moved the kids into it while I got everything else set up.
They were definitely pretty hesitant, and aside from Leeloo doing a quick skulk around the catio, they stayed in their pods and the mini-tent I brought. I was worried it was going to be like when our friend and I went to a campground at Lake Quinalt in the Olympic National Forest and they were nervous the whole time (mostly due to how many people were contantly walking past our campsite.)
Since we’re in the ADA site, the bathrooms, water, and garbage are all super close and convenient. The bathrooms are all private and they each have their own shower in them. The showers are free to use, with hot water until 10pm. So posh!
You can buy ice and firewood from the welcome station with a card until they close at 4pm, and with cash from the two campground hosts for several hours after. Since I decided to not bring my big rubbermaid container of wood to save on space, I bought firewood from one of the hosts for $7 and got to meet Phoenix, his super cute and fat frenchie. She was very sweet and had fun showing me all her naughtiest behaviours, much to her dad’s annoyance, haha.
I got back to our site and fixed the kids their dinner…except I couldn’t find the churu that I KNOW I packed. We started including the churu when I had to get the kids off of chicken and turkey due to the risk of bird flu transmission with raw food. I put them on one of the only fish-based raw foods, but my kids are not fish stick kids, they are chicken nuggie kids. Thanksgiving dinner kids.
It took a whole month for their little imprint eater brains to rewire to understand the raw fish as food, and churu is the only thing that got them through that, so they’re like, pretty committed to it. They barely ate their dinners because they didn’t want their “fish sticks” without their Inaba churu. Sigh.
Our friend and I had a really good fire for several hours, using the bundle that I’d bought and some random, like, wood baseboards or siding that someone had left behind.
We also roasted Japanese sweet potatoes (satsumaimo) in the fire. As our friend put it “well, we made sweet potato briquettes,” because the outsides were cremated, haha. I broke mine in half and ate the center out with a spoon. Better than ice cream!
On the Kanaskat-Palmer State Park website, they mention that there can be infrequent train sounds due to a nearby line, so I honestly wasn’t expecting much. I was absolutely delighted when it turned out I’d be getting distinct train whistles throughout both night and day! I grew up in a small town where freight trains passed through every 15 minutes, so I am a huge fan of all sorts of train noise. Listening to the trains and the crackle of the fire was pure perfection.
The fire was perfect, with small snaps and crackles, and sparks that floated up into the night sky. It eventually burned down into a lovely bed of coals that glowed in pulsating bright red, and then died after burning every scrap of wood. The ideal.
After that, we washed up, and got ready for bed. I hauled the kids into Majel and got them in their pajamas. Leeloo has a new onesie to wear as a base layer, and it definitely helped keep her warmer than she would have been otherwise. One of Leeloo’s TBI manifestations is difficulty with temperature regulation. She gets chilled (and over-heated) much more easily than her brother.
In the past, she’s ended up in the sleeping bag with me, and Sieh would sleep elsewhere in the tent, or next to me. This time, Sieh was the one who crammed himself down by my hip, and Leeloo slept on my shoulder and chest, which is her norm at home. I kept opening the sleeping bag to make sure that Sieh got enough oxygen, haha.
The new Hest Foamy mattress I got was AMAZING. I absolutely cannot sleep on traditional camp sleeping pads anymore, and this mattress is like, as comfortable as my bed at home! I bought it because I was looking for something that was totally made of foam (no air mattresses to eventually end up leaking,) and I was hoping to get something from REI because I have a ton of reward points to use. I was not only able to get it for free, but it was even on sale, so I still have loads of points left. I love a good deal.
Overall, our bed set up worked great! I was able to keep the windows open about halfway because I had a combination of screens with mini awnings, and I also built some window frames with metal grid in the center to prevent the kids from going walkabout during the night. We stayed nice and dry thanks to the excellent ventilation!
DAY 2
I woke up first, and started heating the water for tea. The kids appreciated getting their jammies off so that they could perform their morning ablutions.
After making tea, I heated up more water so that I could wash my face. I’ve finally found a combination of products that keep my skin clear (apparently I should have been using Japanese products all along,) and I wasn’t willing to risk my skin breaking out again by not taking care of it just because I was in the woods.
I got the kids’ breakfast ready, but I still couldn’t find the Churu, and no one wanted to eat without it *cries.* In spite of not having had her breakfast, Leeloo still wanted to come out of the pop-up catio for a wander around the campsite. I caved.
She was super interested in checking out Majel, and climbed all over her, jumping up into the window screen, and then climbing onto the roof and looking all around. Then she climbed on top of Majel again, taking advantage of the fine vantage point to take in the sights.
A newer development in the Life and Times of Leeloo, is that in her ongoing quest to become more cat-like, she has recently started mimicking her brother when he eats his cat grass. At first she was just sort of haphazardly chewing and licking at the air, but she did eventually start actually eating a bit of the grass.
Unfortunately, this means that I no longer have just one kid who gets excited to try and eat all the greenery around us. She immediately started trying to eat the grass. Then, when I stopped her, she went for EVERY. OTHER. PLANT. Exhausting, haha.
Popped her back in the catio and started a systematic search for the Inaba Churu, and finally found it! They decided that the breakfast I’d made for them was perhaps a bit more palatable with it. I have to say, if Leeloo’s stomach could tolerate it, I’d totally feed them canned food when we go camping, because it would be a lot less hassle than the frozen raw.
Leeloo wanted to come out again, so we had another bit of a wander. Our friend was packing up since they were going to be leaving in the evening, so Leeloo took the opportunity to check out the inside of their car. Apparently it was SO INTERESTING.
Then she got out to go and sniff a sword fern. She is obsessed with sniffing sword ferns. We have one at home that she has to be carried away from, because she’ll just never stop sniffing it. I dunno what they put in those things, but apparently it’s crack.
We all went into the catio to hang out for a while. Our friend and I played our bad licensed card games that we’d brought.
Mine was Friends of the Zodiac, which is based on the first, terrible anime adaptation of the Fruits Basket manga (the more recent adaptation is really good, though! You should watch it!) This adaptation was released several years before the end of the manga, so, like I said, it was bad. Two of the characters never even made it into the show, so they’re not represented in the card game with their names or pictures, haha.
In spite of this, the game was surprisingly playable, if a bit complicated by my standards. Then again, I never play tabletop games, so I’m really not the best judge, haha.
After we collected all 12 Soumas for the Friends of the Zodiac, Sieh decided that he was ready to explore beyond the catio. He of course needed to eat some grass, as his number one small and fancy cow activity.
He also got some tree worship in. Seriously, the way this kid looks at trees.
After that, it was time for our friend to head out for a legit boardgames night in the city, so we bid them a fond farewell. I was so glad they could be part of our return to camping!
The kids and I all piled into Majel and took a nap in the car together (card games take a lot of energy!)
In anticipation of some overnight rain, I got up briefly to put the rainfly on the catio, which I hadn’t done when I trialed it at home. It’s really thick, high quality fabric, very pleased with it.
I made the kids their dinners and then got settled back into bed for the night. We all put on our jammies and got snuggled up. It felt much warmer the second night! I had to fold my sleeping bag open and sleep on top of it with the blankets, because I kept getting overheated. And, of course, I had my two little heaters with me.
The rain came as predicted, and it was really lovely to be lying there, all warm and dry, listening to it pattering on the roof. The Roadie screens with their little awnings worked perfectly all night long, keeping bugs and rain out.
DAY 3
Climbed out of our warm and lovely nest to check on how the catio had fared in the rain. Just in case, I’d put the Sleepypods and the mini-tent up on the table and chair, but I needn’t have bothered. The floor of the tent was totally dry and everything inside stayed nice and dry. So incredibly pleased with this high-quality purchase.
I made the kids their breakfast, which they took in the catio, and fixed myself some instant miso and some milky tea to quickly fuel myself for my coming labours.
I started by packing up the kitchen stuff, and getting everything else organized. I had to pack up what I could while leaving the catio set up for the kids so that they wouldn’t have to be in their Sleepypods the whole time. I left the litterbox in for them as well. Once I had everything else in Majel, then they got buckled in.
Also, I swear it seems like every kind of spider ever tried to come home with us. One was on the food bag, but it was a super adorable jumping spider. I adore those are they don’t scare me at all. [Mini jump scare warning…get it? JUMP scare? Jumping spider?…I’ll just see myself out.]
Then there was big one on the rainfly, which was yikes. [YIKES WARNING]
Lastly, was the giant one missing a leg that had decided to insert itself between the floor of the catio and the groundcloth/footprint. Like, dude, WHY. It was so gross. I can’t even watch the video I took of it crawling. (There was also a secret 4th spider that DID make it home with us that I didn’t find until I was drying the catio out and went to put it away with the rainfly. Ugh.) Also, [BIGGER YIKES WARNING]
This katydid made it all the way home with us, but we do see maybe 1 or 2 of these a year, so transporting it an hour from its base shouldn’t be harmful. Hopefully, lol.
I was working down to the wire to get us all packed up in time for checkout (and I actually went 5 minutes over, sorry park rangers and camp hosts!) I had to fit everything in just perfectly because I brought so much stuff and I didn’t want to block my vision while driving. It was a really time-consuming strenuous process. Totally wore me out.
I gave the campsite a final, thorough inspection, and then we headed out. Home until next time!
Camp Like Noodle 