Stops along the way

Another important stop on our trip was to head back to my favorite place, Philadelphia.  Of course we had to break the drive up from Buffalo to Philly into two stops.  On the way we stayed at another glorious state park in NY and a very rustic, private place in NJ. 

The NY park is called Green Lakes State Park and is in Fayetteville, NY, just south of Syracuse.  The picture of the lake above has no filter applied to it.  That is the actual color of the lake.  It's a glacial lake, and gets is signature color due to very clear water, the depth of lake, and the presence of calcium carbonate.  For my science friends, the CaCO3 helps by removing the filtering affect of dissolved organic molecules.  The depth and clarity allow the shorter wavelengths of light (green & blue) to penetrate deeply, scatter, and reflect back from the bottom of the lake.  Ehem.  

Furthermore, there are 3 types of photosynthetic bacteria that inhabit the lake.  Between 55 & 75 feet below the surface there is a 3 foot layer of rosy pink water due to the presence of purple and green sulfur bacteria.  *Adjusts nerd glasses.*

Anywho- this lake was also good for swimming!  

AND they had a concession stand for dinner.  Nachos, burgers & hotdogs!  We have no regard for healthy meals while camping.  

This place was first class all the way!  The NJ site wasn't really the same.  While there is something to be said for a holler in the mountains, it was really difficult to go from the well maintained and luxurious stay at Green Lakes to the rundown and dated stay at Mountain View Campground in NJ.  This is NOT a dig on NJ- we've stayed at some beautiful places in NJ and got nuttin' but love for y'all!*

Mother Nature, of course, did her thing regardless, but that was definitely the highlight.  The bathhouse was not pleasant.  I wish I had taken a pic or two for a visual, but it was pretty scary in there and my focus was on exiting as quickly as possible.  There were also multiple warnings about the possibility of running into bears.  While I appreciate the warnings and directions about how to respond in the case of a bear sighting, sleep was hard to come by that night. 

We did manage to find a quaint little pizza joint at the bottom of the mountain.  Oohh the cheese lava that flowed from the calzone was speaking my language.  Cheese, bathhouse and bears, oh my!

We broke camp early to make a hasty retreat and pulled out of Mountain View at 8:30am.  It was a new record!  Onward to Philly!

* Note: Here is where we lost our precious extension cord.  RIP.