Houghton Letchworth KOA

Houghton, New York

When you are on the road full-time, you miss family. If we flew back to California to see our family, we would have to find some place to board the horses and store our LQ for the duration of the visit. If we drove back to California to see our family, we would be doubling back and having to start over again to visit the 48 states. The most reasonable thing is to find a place where we can fly family in to visit us. But, the location has to meet certain criteria. It has to have a place for our horses. It has to have a place for our trailer. It has to have a place for our family (cabin/lodge). Plus, it has to have local attractions to visit. Houghton Letchworth KOA boasts RV campsites as well as cabins, plus the owners are equestrians with a large stables and pastures on the side of the campground. There are even horse trails you can access from the campground. However, the owners haven’t allowed campers to bring in their own horses…until now. A little persuasion and they actually were open to the idea. They are hoping to add some campsites specifically for equestrians near the barn and open the campground to equestrians, which would be fabulous. There is an equestrian event center close by and visiting equestrians are always inquiring about a place to stay.

We visited a local history village, since Ethan is a history buff. They have a shuttle to take you around the park. We learned about blacksmiths, coopers, and other occupations in the early 18th century. Ethan (Evi’s son), Evi (Daniel’s fiance), and Daniel (our son) on the shuttle. They look like they belong together.

The animals were free range, wandering about the area, as early settlers didn’t have time to build up fencing.

We visited Fort Niagara and stopped to admire the view of Lake Erie. Fort Niagara has demonstrations where guides re-enact shooting muskets and mortar.

We enjoyed shaved ice after visiting Niagara Falls.

We got to try out some Buffalo style pizza in Buffalo, New York. It wasn’t bad, but we prefer the pizza in Chicago.

Buffalo is a nice city to visit.

We didn’t spend a lot of time at the campground, but we did try out their four person ping pong table as we had never seen four person ping pong before. They have an arcade room and a nice heated pool as well.

While we were playing tourist and spending time with family, the horses enjoyed a large paddock with run in sheds. They even got some turn-out in a lovely pasture.

Karen has taught all the horses to give kisses, so Ethan got a smooch from the miniature horse in the barn.

We visited Letchworth State Park, which boasts it is the “Grand Canyon of the East” and three different waterfalls. While the falls were not as grand as Niagara Falls, they still were lovely.

There is a local Amish market a few miles from the campground called The Shepherd’s Place. Supposedly, they make the best Amish donuts, but only on Friday mornings and they were completely sold out by the time we got there.

Regardless, the family enjoyed visiting the gift shop and buying a few items.

Ethan really wanted to try horse back riding. However, he had never been on a horse. So, we put him on Mercy in the dressage arena and gave him some beginning riding lessons. Mercy tolerated Ethan, who would give cues to stop (pulling back on the reins and sitting back) when he wanted Mercy to go.

Our last tourist stop was a sculpture park. Of all the sculpture parks we have visited, this one involved the most hiking.

But the best part of our time here was just spending time with family. It turned out to be a really good location for a family reunion as it was located close to Niagara Falls, Buffalo (where the airport was), and plenty of other places to visit.