Tag: National Park to Park Highway

Camping on the National Park to Park Highway

Camping on the National Park-to-Park Highway

When I tell people I’m taking a seven week road trip to follow the National Park to Park Highway one of the first questions they ask is, “Where are you going to sleep?” 

Other than a visit to Togwotee Mountain Lodge near Grand Teton National Park, we’ll be sagebrushing along the route like many early travelers did.


 Why Would You Do That?

My brother-in-law is NOT outdoorsy in any sense of the word. To him anywhere without air conditioning is the equivalent of a prehistoric cave. So when I said we would be turning our truck into the ultimate camping vehicle for this trip his response was:

“What’s the appeal of Voluntary Homelessness?”

 

 
 

Normally sleeping in your car is considered a bad thing, but we’re excited for the adventure of camping on the National Park to Park Highway this summer.

See how our National Park-to-Park Highway tour went in this FREE photo ebook:

Campsites


We’ve reserved campsites in many of the National Parks through recreation.gov. This website is the one stop shop for reserving camping spaces on federal lands. There are some great resources there, including an article with Tips for Camping with Kids.

Reservations are important, especially at popular National Parks like Yosemite. Sites there are snatched up six months in advance, the instant the dates are made available on recreation.gov.

I found this out when trying to reserve a campsite there last month and finding ABSOLUTELY NOTHING available.

 

If you’re like me, just a little spontaneous, don’t worry. Every campground in the National Park system has a First Come First Serve option, with campsites set aside for those last minute travelers.

 

Ultimate Camping Vehicle


When we first dreamed up this trip, Mountain Dad and I debated about where we should sleep. Normally we are tent campers, throwing sleeping pads and bags into a nylon and mesh shelter that gives the illusion of protection through a thin fabric cover.

 

But setting up and taking down a tent every night for seven weeks straight wasn’t what we wanted.

Image from www.americanautoglass.com

Nor did we want to tow a camper 5,000 to 6,000 miles. The logistics of towing, parking and maintaining a vehicular accessory was not what this National Park to Park Highway Tour was about.

Instead of buying or renting an RV we decided to turn our current truck into the Ultimate Camping Vehicle.

 

Shelter


Our newest sponsor, Sam T Evans Trailers of Salt Lake City, hooked us up with a discount on a LEER DCC Truck Cap. It’s a commercial truck topper normally seen on construction sites that we are converting into a sleeping shelter for me, Mountain Dad and Baby L.

We decided on a truck cap so we could leave our beds unmade and not have to take so much time setting up and taking down camp every day. We want enough head room that we can sit up comfortably and something that might be useful after this trip is over. Hence the commercial series.

Big E and little g will have the option of sleeping on the bench seats inside the cab or in a nifty popup tent from our friends at Lucky Bums. It sets up instantly, but can be tricky to fold down. And since it’s not waterproof we’ll only use it when the chance of rain is minimal.

Baby L will have her own little baby tent attached to the tailgate as well. The KidCo PeaPod is the perfect size for a little one and with its easy popup feature it’ll be great for our littlest camper.

 

Storage


Since we’re sleeping in the back of our truck the next obvious question is, where will you put all your stuff? I’m glad you asked.

First we got a discount for a DECKED Truck Bed Organizer. Pullout drawers in the truck bed keep our tools/gear/food all organized. The waterproof top can support 2,000 pounds so we can still use it as a regular truck bed too.

Second, Yakima sponsored the perfect bike storage solution with the SwingDaddy 4 Bike Hitch Rack. With space for four bikes mounted to a swivel arm, the rack moves out of the way for easy access to the back of the vehicle WITHOUT UNLOADING THE BIKES EVERY TIME. Can you tell I’m excited about that?

Finally we’re getting a Yakima LoadWarrior Rooftop Cargo Basket to mount on top of the truck cap for all of those cumbersome items that won’t fit in the DECKEDor the cab.


 Camping on the National Park-to-Park Highway


We’ve thought through how we want our National Park-to-Park Highway trip to go, but who knows if it will turn out how we expect. Camping is always an adventure whether it’s in a tent, an RV or in the Ultimate Camping Vehicle.

We’re always open to suggestions and tips.

Have you ever camped in your car? What worked and what didn’t?

Let us learn from your experience and hopefully we can make our National Park to Park Highway tour a total success. Leave a comment here or connect with us on twitter, instagram and facebook.

This post includes affiliate links. I receive a small commission if you purchase something by clicking through these links. Thank you to our 2016 National Park to Park Highway Tour sponsors, several of whom are listed here. Check out our Sponsors page for more info about them.

Yakima to Sponsor our National Park to Park Highway Tour

We have some exciting news about our National Park to Park Highway Tour. We’ve just confirmed our newest sponsor for the trip. Drum roll please…

Yes! Yakima racks has joined Burley and Woom Bikes as an elite sponsor of our National Park to Park Highway Tour. Just in time for National Bike Month!

I’m really looking forward to biking in the National Parks on our route and it wouldn’t be possible without these great sponsors. To see all of our trip sponsors head over to the Sponsors page.

Psst…New Design
Some of you may have noticed our new Mountain Mom and Tots website design. We liked the cleaner look and style, hopefully all you readers enjoy it too!

Top Ten Zero Waste Camping Tips

I posted Friday about Subaru’s Zero Landfill Initiative in Grand Teton, Denali and Yosemite National Parks. Since we’ll be visiting two of those parks on our National Park to Park Highway Tour, I thought you might like to know how we’ll camp without producing trash. We’re not perfect no waste campers, but these top ten Zero Waste Camping tips will reduce the garbage we put in the National Park bin.

1. Refill Water Bottles – Instead of buying water bottles at gas stations along the way I refill our reusable bottles in their soda stations. At camp we set out the five gallon water container we bring from home as a water station and refill our water bottles at the spigot. Several National Parks including Zion and Grand Teton no longer sell disposable water bottles at all. Instead they’ve installed prominent water refill stations throughout the park.


 2. Pack the Pantry – Bring your food in the containers you use at home instead of buying convenience snacks and treats. A jar of Gummi Bears from the bulk section of the grocery store is just as tasty as a bag you’d buy at a gas station.

3. Be Cooler Conscious – Instead of buying ice wrapped in plastic, make your own or use reusable ice blocks. Pack meat frozen to keep it cold longer and make sure to put other food in waterproof containers. Soggy egg cartons and wet butter aren’t very appetizing.

4. No Pain Propane – Most camp stoves require propane tanks to function, but used tanks are some of the hardest waste to properly dispose of. Instead of using the green 1 lb throwaway tanks we have a small refillable propane container and a conversion kit hose. Not only does it last longer, we can refill it every time we camp.

5. Double Duty Food Prep – This BioLite Wood Burning Campstove turns wood into energy so you make your food and charge your devices at the same time. It’s really cool. We’ll be using it on our National Park to Park Highway trip this summer.

6. Compost on the Go – If your campsite doesn’t have a critter problem try burying your food waste. Some campsites won’t allow this, but I’ve done it at primitive sites or on BLM land. Or refill an empty glass jar or food container with your compost and put it in your pile at home.

7. Wash Dishes – Bring reusable kitchen items like the Sea to Summit 3-Piece X Setdishes. Not only are they reusable, they pack flat and the Sea to Summit X-Pot Set is really cool. See how the bottom is metal but the top is foldable silicone? Seriously awesome. See www.seatosummit.com for more info. I’m stoked to be using them on our National Park to Park Highway trip this summer!

8. Bandanna Like a Bad Guy – It is surprisingly convenient to keep a handkerchief or bandanna in a pocket or day pack while camping. I use it to wipe off just about anything – hands, face, table, utensils and even a kids bum. Don’t worry, I put it in the dirty laundry after that one. We used to use baby wipes and paper towels A LOT while camping, but the switch to cloth has been relatively painless.

9. Camp Towels – We like having lightweight, packable, quick dry towels like the Sea to Summit DryLite. They’re good for drying people, dishes or wet gear, plus they dry out fast. But my favorite camp towel is actually a LUNATEC Self-cleaning Travel Washcloth. They’re rough enough to scrape out food but soft enough to wash just about anything and when you’re done you just rinse it clean.

10. Stuff Recyclables in Stuff Sacks – People often throw out easily recyclable items like drink containers because the recycling bin isn’t conveniently located. Keep those recyclables separate from your garbage, by repurposing a sleeping bag or camp chair stuff sack.

And here’s a bonus for all of you daring parents of babies:

11. Cloth Diaper – We have a bed wetting situation in our household. It is not fun as a parent (or as a child) especially when out in nature. But we’ve found that camping is just an extension of our every day life. So in addition to Baby L’s cloth diapers we have bedwetter training pants and waterproof sheet protectors that we use nightly, even when camping. It is more difficult to use cloth diapers when flush toilets and running water are limited so sometimes we go disposable, but over all I try to use cloth. Pioneers did it. So can we, but I’m bringing along a waterproof dry bag
dry bag to use as a laundry hamper.

Spending time in nature should help us think about our environmental impact, but often the stress of traveling causes more impulse buys, more convenience packaging and more waste. Since last October we’ve been trying to reduce our waste at home so it makes sense to extend that mentality to our travels. 

Now that I’m aware of the massive trash issues the National Parks has to deal with, I can’t go back to how I was before. I guess that’s how it is with all change.

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Zero Waste Camping on the National Park to Park Highway

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This post includes affiliate links. I receive a small commission if you purchase something by clicking through these links. Thank you Sea to Summit and BioLite for sponsoring gear for our 2016 National Park to Park Highway Tour. 

Zero Waste Camping on the National Park to Park Highway

Zero waste camping
 
On our weekly Go Green litter pick up hike.

Zero Waste

I’ve been interested in Zero Waste living for a while. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, Zero Waste is a movement of drastically reducing the amount of trash you generate through composting, recycling, reusing as much as possible and making more package free purchasing choices. Basically it’s being aware and taking action to reduce the amount of garbage in your life.

After reading the book Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Reducing Your Waste by Bea Johnson, I made several changes in our daily life to reduce the amount of trash we generate. I now bring reusable produce and grocery bags to the grocery store, shop in the bulk section and cloth diaper Baby L. But camping? That’s a whole different beast.

Think of your last camp out. Paper plates, propane containers, plastic water bottles – all that rubbish has to go somewhere. Yes single use items are super convenient, but once they’re used the remains are shipped away to rot in a landfill, and in the case of plastic items they’ll stay there long after we’re gone.

Mountain Dad and Baby L picking up garbage on our local trail.

Think of how much trash you generated then multiply that by the 300 million – the number of visitors the National Park Service had last year. In Grand Teton National Park alone 1800 TONS of garbage is generated every season.

Subaru’s National Park Zero Landfill Initiative

As a sponsor for the 100 anniversary of the National Park Service and an industry leader in Zero Waste practices, Subaru has partnered with Grand Teton, Denali and Yosemite National Parks to reduce their garbage footprint. These three parks are part of a pilot program aimed to curb the amount of trash visitors produce in the parks each year.

This video from the Subaru website was really interesting:

Grand Teton National Park is the first stop on our National Park to Park Highway Route. That means the pressure is on. Will we be able to live a Zero Landfill lifestyle for seven weeks while driving more than 5,000 miles?

Nope. But that doesn’t mean we won’t try.

What’ll make our Grand Teton visit easier is staying with our trip sponsor at Togwotee Mountain Lodge. Their cabins have mini kitchettes, meaning preparing food will be as easy as it would be at home. Plus access to laundry facilities and flush toilets will make cloth diapering so much easier. That may be more than you want to know, but we’re doing everything we can to reduce the amount of trash we use. What about you?

This post includes affiliate links. I receive a small commission if you purchase something by clicking through these links.