The Promised Land State Park became our first camping destination this year. It is located on the Pocono Plateau, 1,800 feet above sea level, which makes it much cooler than it here in Philadelphia. Having this in mind, we decided to bring our warm sleeping bags and some winter clothes.
At the point of our visit, Pickerel Point Campground was only one open for walk in tent campers. It was a very nice campground on a peninsula on the southern side of the lake. Restrooms had showers and were very clean.
Before our visit I did a quick research on the conditions of the night sky, wondering if I could get a photo of stars. I used Stellarium to simulate how stars should look like at a certain time/directions in the sky and found that there could be a short time window to see scattered stars in the west direction before moon rise. So we chose a campsite facing west, close to the lake shore.
Sorry Tammy, no cellphone signal here
After setting up the tent, we lit up the fire in the huge stove. Our dinner recipe was very simple with bacon, shrimp, smashed potatoes mixed with chicken.
Some soft drinks
Twilight continued to lit up the sky after sunset. I sat on a log by the lake, enjoying the cool breezes. Finally the sky dimmed so I could try a couple of shots of the sky. I am using a Samsung NX500 with the Samyang 12mm F2 lens, one of the best APS-C combo for astrophotography. However there weren’t many stars in the sky, so I didn’t expect to come back with great photos. Anyway, the remaining twilight added a bit more color to this photo, still an interesting shot.
The temperature dropped quickly after sunset. The lowest temperature that night was close to freezing point. Our sleeping bags treated us very well but the sleeping pads felt not thick enough to mitigate the unevenness of the ground. The brutal sound of the wind came in and out of my shallow dreams till the first sun rays hit our tent.
Our weekend escape from the city wouldn’t be complete without a short hiking. The Conservation Island is scenic and small, making it perfect for a morning walk.
This could be a wonderful spot for a sunrise/sunset shots with dramatic foreground/midground/faraway cloudscape
This chair in the pine forest caught my attention. Despite of this beautiful scene I was wondering how one sitting here could survive from mosquitoes XD.
So much for today. We look forward to another weekend.
