We chose Montgomery Bell for our first camping trip of the season and our first state park visit. This was a strategic choice because, frankly, taking a 1 year old camping is a little scary and Montgomery Bell is the closest park to our home. It was a test run and we knew we could bale out if we needed to. Thankfully, the weekend went well and we had a great time.
The campground is relatively small. The upside to that was the ability to watch the children as the rode their bikes around the loop and played. The downside was that most of the campsites were close together. This was not good because many sites were hilly and didn't give you a lot of location choices for setting up your tent. We ended up pitching tent back into the woods to give ourselves a little added privacy.
As far as activities, MB has all the standard equipment (playgrounds, volleyball net, baseball field, fishing, nature center) but I would say it's "thing" are trails - hiking and mountain biking. Unfortunately, I can't comment on the mountain bike trails. That is an activity we have not been able to find a way to do with small children. Taking a bike trailer on a mountain bike trail just sounded like a REALLY bad idea. ;) We did do some hiking with the kids and it was great. They had a wide variety of trail lengths and the trails were well-maintained and beautiful. My 3 year-old son is hooked on hiking after this camping trip!
Montgomery Bell is an older park and honestly it does show it's age. I prefer to think of it as a "no-frills" park. It is a great park to stay at when you are wanting to have a great family camping trip and just relax around the campfire.Here are a few more pictures from our visit:
