Planning our First Extended Camping Adventure
The notion to take things up a notch and to plan an extended adventure actually bloomed quite organically. My brother and his fiancée planned their Los Angeles wedding for May 2021. COVID was still very prevalent, and we still didn’t know very much about it. Needless to say, we were hesitant to board a plane with our 4 kids (and 200 strangers) for a 5-hour flight. Well, if we’re not flying, guess we’re driving! Excellent! With our camper in tow, we’re driving from western Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, California. That’s over 2,500 miles one way with numerous route possibilities. Yikes! How in the world are we going to turn this idea into a reality?
We wanted to make the journey itself an adventure. Pretty early on, we came up with the idea to look at national parks along the way for our major exploits. We live in a relatively rural area, and we’re no strangers to hiking and exploring what nature has to offer. In a previous post, I mentioned that we’re typically drawn to camping in state parks. For us, the draw to the national parks was the same, only stronger. Our country is quite vast, and the terrain is ever changing. National parks exist to help celebrate and protect some of the more unique areas, and/or those with historical significance.
The Quest
Now the quest is this: PA to CA and back with a variety of national parks for adventuring. We have 30 days for the entire escapade, 3 of those days are dedicated to celebrating the upcoming nuptials (and those 3 days are not flexible). As the oldest and probably most famous, Yellowstone NP came to mind right away, but that would add at least 800 miles onto one leg of the trip. Besides, we decided that we’d need to spend quite some time there to truly explore Yellowstone; plus, the weather in Yellowstone NP in May can be dicey for towing. We scrapped a northern route. Google Maps shows 2 options: a central-ish route, and a more southern route. We decided to run with both of these, one for our westward trek and one for our easterly return.
Heading west on the more central route would allow us to explore Arches NP, Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP, Death Valley NP and Sequoia NP. Heading east on the more southerly route, we can add Grand Canyon NP, Petrified Forest NP, Gateway Arch NP, and Mammoth Cave NP. These two routes offered us quite a variety of national parks. So far we’re doing good!
A Quick History Lesson
Thanks to President Ulysses S. Grant, the world’s first national park, Yellowstone National Park, came into fruition March 1, 1872. However, the National Park Service (NPS) wasn’t born until 1916. Today, there are 63 national parks; New River Gorge National Park is the newest, earning its promotion to national park January 2021. Including the 63 national parks, in 2023 the NPS manages 424 “units.” These units include the national parks as well as battlefields, historical parks, monuments, memorials, recreation areas, and more.
So! Planning a trip around what the NPS has to offer is not too hard at all. (Pro Tip: on our first extended trip, we stuck mostly to the national parks on the route. Today, I regret not checking out other NPS units. I know that we drove right by quite a few of them. Now we try to look at all of the units. Each one has something distinctive to offer.) You can leave all about the NPS by visiting their website.
An Excellent RV Trip Planner
Planning out the day-by-day was a bit trickier. We can’t travel as fast hauling a travel trailer as we can in our truck alone. From our previous weekend trips, we know that the “sweet spot” of our setup is around 60 mph; anything above that is more stressful and burns more gas. We also have to account for the time it takes to pack up in the mornings and unpack upon arrival at our destination. Furthermore, sure we’re targeting national parks, but what about the other days. We needed to find mini adventures along the way. After a long day of driving, we wanted there to be something for the kids to get excited about. Day after day of driving can get pretty monotonous pretty fast.
Thinking about all of this quickly became overwhelming. Luckily, we stumbled across RV LIFE Trip Wizard; this subscription is worth every penny! To get into the full details of RV LIFE Trip Wizard, check out our review here. Cutting to the chase though, RV LIFE Trip Wizard helped us design a route that was RV safe – no tiny tunnels, seasonal roads, steep grades with hairpin turns, etc.
It made it easy to find camping options along the way. It also helped us determine what each day’s drive would look like. Many of the miles were going to be interstate miles (we did have that wedding to get to after all). With that in mind, and with RV LIFE Trip Wizard’s help, we determined that a 300-350 mile day would be about as much as we wanted to tolerate. Barring and detours or delays, that would be 5-6 hours driving; with a full house in the truck cab, this seemed like it would be our limit before the cabin fever set in and the bickering began. It also gave us a little wiggle-room for possible unforeseen issues (flat tire, bad weather, and so on).
Factoring in gas and lunch breaks, if we got on the road around 8am, we could roll into our next site around 2-3pm. Speaking of lunch breaks, they were also great opportunities to seek out a mini-escapade. Some of these were planned ahead of time, but some were things we found along the way. I mean, who knew that Elk Horn, IA (population <1000) was home to the Museum of Danish America as well as an actual working Danish windmill (originally from Norre Snede, Denmark in 1848)?!? We couldn’t miss that one!
The Clothing Conundrum
In addition to planning adventures, we had other logistics to think about, like laundry. We’re going to have 6 people living in 200 square feet…for 30 days. Our camper boasts a “pantry” – a small closet with 4 shelves…perfect for each kiddo to get a collapsible fabric storage cube for their clothes. We each packed 4 days’ worth of clothes (plus the 1 day we were wearing); there’s also just enough space on each kid’s shelf for their hiking backpacks. The adults each have a small closet on either side of the sofa/bed; we packed the same items as the kids.
A swimsuit and towel for each person was stored under one dinette seat. Lightweight hiking puffy coats were also under the dinette seat. Everyone brought a pair of hiking boots, sandals, and crocs – hiking boots in a tote in the pass-thru, crocs near the camper door (there’s a tiny shoe nook there), and sandals on. Anyway, when looking at campgrounds on RV LIFE Trip Wizard, we could check out a list of amenities at each location. That made it super easy to plan a stop with laundry onsite every 4-5 days.
Gathering Groceries
Grocery shopping and meal planning were two more things to consider as we planned our trip. Given that we’re feeding a family of 6, our camper storage maxes out around 4-5 days worth of groceries. We didn’t want to spend precious adventure-time grocery shopping instead, so we many times sought out Walmart; using their app, we could schedule a pick-up time, shop while we were on the road, and pick everything on our way to the next destination. For meals we tried to keep things relatively simple.
Breakfasts needed to be quick (to prep, to eat and to clean up) but filling – oatmeal, frozen breakfast burritos/sandwiches. We may have overdone the frequency of oatmeal; 2 years have passed, and our kids still have an oatmeal aversion! Lunches were typically a picnic – sandwiches, fruit and/or veggies, chips or pretzels. Snacks needed to be easily portable – granola bars, cracker packs. One-pot-wonders were awesome dinner options; clean-up was easier when there were fewer dishes to wash. Grilling was also a fan favorite.
Other than where to go, how to get there, what to wear, and what to eat, there were a few other random things to consider. For example, some of the national parks require that you purchase a timed entry ticket (to help space out arrivals) and/or shuttle tickets. Certain others have unique opportunities that you need to make reservations for in advance. These types of things are park specific, so we’ll talk about any of these when we discuss that individual park.
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