Camping at Monte Sano State Park

We went camping this past weekend at Monte Sano State Park. Monte Sano is a Alabama State Park on 2,140 acres atop Monte Sano Mountain (1,600 ft elevation) on the east side of Huntsville. This was our first visit to the park and we will totally be going back to Monte Sano because the campground was nice and there are so many trails to check out. There are over 20 miles of trails in the park varying from easy to extremely difficult.

It is about a two hour drive from our house so it was easy to get to and set everything up before dark leaving around noon on Friday. One of the main reasons I picked this park for our trip was the extensive network of hiking trails that are popular with trail runners and the mountain bike crowd. I kept seeing photos of their trails popping up on my Instagram feed and I was intrigued. After a little research I booked spot #17 in the campground for the weekend. It turned out to be a great spot. I picked it because it was on the outer loop meaning no one would be behind us and it looked liked the neighbors on either side of our site were spaced a little further away than some of the other sites.

After we set up our site Eric prepped dinner and got a fire going. I had time to read a book (Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks) and work on my selfie skills.

For dinner Friday night we made vegan Philly cheese seitan sandwiches. They were super easy to make. At the campsite Eric chopped up bell peppers and onions and sauteed them in a small pan on our camp stove. We sliced open some hoagie buns and added the cooked veggies with, Field Roast Chao cheese slices, and pre cooked seitan we brought with us from the house in the cooler. We wrapped the sandwiches in aluminum foil and put them in coals of the campfire for about a half hour to melt the Chao and warm the sandwiches.

After dinner we roasted vegan marshmallows that I picked up on my last Trader Joe’s trip and attempted to tell ghost stories. The campground had a fun atmosphere at night. Some of our neighboring campers were entertaining friends rather loudly but nobody around us got too out of control.

Saturday morning we slept in late (8am) and had a quick breakfast (So Delicious coconutmilk yogurt, an orange and french press coffee) before going hiking. It was really nice being able to wake up and walk to the hiking trail rather than having to pack up and drive to a trail. We hiked about four miles total. We took the Fire Tower Trail that ran behind our camp site to check out the fire tower. From the fire tower we took the South Plateau Loop trail out to the point and looped back to the Fire Tower Trail. It was all flat easy hiking because the trails stayed on top of the mountain. The South Plateau Loop was really pretty. I could easily spend more time on that trail.

We went back to our campsite for lunch (hummus with carrot sticks and toasted naan bread). After lunch we just chilled at our campsite and enjoyed the fall afternoon. One of the RVs a few sites up the road from us had a pretty impressive set up. They were hosting a lively tailgate party with the Alabama Tennessee football game playing on a TV. It finally felt like fall in the south.

Another one of my Trader Joe’s finds was wine in a can which seemed like a great idea for camping. It wasn’t half bad. Saturday night for dinner we cooked frozen meatless Gardein chick’n we had packed in the bottom of our cooler with a box of Daiya Cheezy Mac. The chezzy mac was great for camping because all we had to do was boil noodles. We smothered the chick’n in bbq sauce and served on a hamburger bun.

After dinner I attempted to recreate a desert I had seen on the blog Fresh Off The Grid. Their recipe is for a Quick and Easy Campfire Apple Crisp served with So Delicious coconut ice cream. I cooked ours in a skillet on the camp stove and served with So Delicious cocowhip. I didn’t change much else. I was a little scared to pack ice cream in our cooler but the tube of frozen cocowhip had thawed out nicely. The whiskey and brown sugar flavor of the apple crisp was amazing.

Sunday morning we woke up early. The campground was completely quiet. Eric made pancakes for us and then we packed up camp and headed home.

Looking for more veggie friendly camping meals? Check out this older post from a past trip. Let us know if you like these types of post. We are always trying to come up with new ideas for easy camping meals and for meals that are easy to make on a grill.

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