Our first camping trip to California's Rock Creek Valley happened by accident four years ago. I was anxious to get out of town and off the grid with the kids, so I quickly packed the truck with every piece of camping gear I stumbled over on the garage floor, and started driving north toward Mammoth Lakes. We had no reservations for a campsite, but I figured we'd find something.

It was raining that day, an ever-so-slight mist, but we ventured down to the creek anyway to see what we could find. A camp ranger at the Ventura Ranch KOA had told us only a few days before the area was completely dry.

There is a reason the National Lampoon's family vacation movies were such phenomenal hits in the '80s and '90s. They depicted the realities, though hyperbolized, of the typical family vacation, and were and continue to be hugely relatable because we all know how tragically hilarious it can be to watch our own vacation plans take a different turn than we expected.