Indian Cave State Park

 This past weekend Naveen and I ventured out for our first camping trip of the summer. Upon the glowing recommendation of Jaime, my colleague at Thompson Music Co., we headed south to Indian Cave State Park. After all of our usual hullabaloo in getting organized and into our campsite we took the evening to see the cave and to try some fishing on the Missouri River.

Naveen and Hoover at the cave entrance.

Much to Naveen's chagrin I always insist on strange faces!

But I always redeem the silly pics with a real one.

 We couldn't find the entrance to the trail for the designated fishing area so we headed down to the boat launch to test out our new fishing rods. (Thanks Mom and Dad!)

 The boat launch area still shows signs of the flooding from last year. Note the water line on the bathrooms.

Nice spot to land the big one!

Did he get a fish or is he just snagged?

We enjoy fishing, but I secretly was happy we didn't get anything. I am not familiar with river fish and I am pretty sure I would totally lose my cool when reeling in some bottom feeding breed of fish I have never caught before.

The bathrooms were out of commission due to the flooding last year....

 Unless you are a cat and like to bury your business.

Making sandwiches for the three of us for our picnic lunch during our hike.

 The amount of wildlife noise at night was surprising and did not lead to a restful night. Hoover was at attention all night long and I was getting paranoid with what I hope were owl's. They certainly sounded like a pack of monkey's.

 True to form I awake at the ass crack of dawn and must find something to occupy my time. I made sandwiches for our picnic lunch and burned the rest of our huge wood pile.

The scenic overlook where we began our hike.

Right back where we started. Post hike sweaty picture. 

More of the silly faces.

Hoover resting on the road beneath the super cool tree roots.

Scenic overlook platform.

 Time for some rest and water in the shade.

Hoover was a great hiking companion. Later, on the drive home we would also find out that he is a great treat for wood ticks!!! Between the State Park and our house we picked off at least 5 ticks from this happy camper. (I also removed 2 from Naveen and countless others from our packs and other camping gear.)