On October 25-26 the troop went on an overnight campout to Colossal Cave Mountain Park. We had 9 scouts, 1 sibling and 6 adults attend this trip. We were allowed to use one of the campgrounds inside the park for no cost just because we were scouts. The campsite had a nice ramada, picnic tables, trash barrels and plenty of shade trees.

 We left the Deer Valley Community Park at 7am on Saturday to make our way towards Tucson. We arrived at colossal cave around 10:30 and began setting up camp. We only had ½ hour to setup because our cave tour was scheduled for 11:15

At 11:30 we went on a tour of the cave. The cave was over 2 miles long, but the tour only covered ½ mile of the cave. The cave was first used by Hohokam Indians between 900 and 1450 AD as storage and a shrine. In 1882 it was used as a hideout by 9 prisoners who escaped from Pima County Jail. In the 1930’s, the Civilian Conservation Corps built the walk ways, hand rails and installed lighting into the cave. In 2008, Boy Scout Troop 222 enjoys a guided tour of the cave. After the tour, we returned to our campsite for lunch.

 In order for us to get a free tour of the cave, we had to perform a service project. Our project was to clean up from a statue dedication from earlier in the day. There were chairs and tables that had to be moved to storage. We also moved some heavy items back to their original locations.

 The rest of the day was declared free time. The boys threw a ball around, climbed trees and played in a nearby wash. A few wild javelina paid us a visit and quickly left. The scouts got a chance to see the wild animals as they meandered up the nearby wash. In the evening we visited the Halloween Howl event in the park. We left shortly after we learned that the event was geared towards little kids.

Everyone had a good time at this campout. Next time we will have to campout Friday night so we can tour Kartchner Caverns too. The Pima Air and Space Museum and the Titan Missile Museum are also close by.