The Best Road Trips to Take in the USA Are you ready to hit the road? There’s nothing like a wide-open highway to make you fall in love with road trips and traveling all over again. If you have never been on a USA road trip, there’s no better time than now! To map out…
Camping is a great way to disconnect from the world and spend a weekend or vacation enjoying it with family, friends, and being surrounded by nature. Camping is good for the mind, spirit, and soul to mix up our daily routines and commune with nature. To camp, you don't necessarily have to hike, there are many places available where you can park your car and pitch a tent right next to the car. Car camping is so inexpensive, easy to do and you have a great time with only one or two days camping if not longer.
We have hiked the Arizona Trail, Grand Canyon among other hikes around Arizona and New Jersey. I'm committed to sharing our tips with other people that want to experience these unforgettable moments being surrounded by nature. We know how daunting packing for multi-day camping trips can be, that's why we created the Ultimate Camping checklist. We hope this checklist will make your packing experience more enjoyable!
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To determine what gear you need to pack for your camping trip, consider these 4 questions:
This is very important because it determines what you need to pack, for instance, it can mean packing a light sleeping bag versus packing a heavyweight one (for staying warm when your sleeping). Even better should you take a light fleece or a jacket? These are important questions you should be asking. The last thing you want is to freeze at night time.
This will help you determine whether or not you will have access to water, bathroom facilities, electricity, bathrooms with showers, and fire pits. If you are disperse camping you will not have all these extra amenities. I always recommend people to go to KOA campgrounds if they feel the need to have access to amenities. If you didn't know there are KOAs all over the United States. You can even park your RV in these campsites. The downfall to KOAs are that your campsite is close to the next campsite, so if you want some privacy you won't get that. Maybe consider going to a more remote campsite if you are looking to have a good amount of space and privacy.
You decide how you would like to spend your time. Make sure you have all the equipment necessary if you want to go hiking, hunting, fishing, ride on the ATV, kyack, play games, or just relax and enjoy being surrounded by nature.
Imagine your campsite, how would you want your campsite to be? Would you want a more minimalistic approach or a homey one? Some people take pride in setting up an elaborate/cushy campsite.
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This list might look a bit overwhelming at first but dive into it and you will realize that you already have a lot of these items around your house. Begin by gathering the most important items like your tent and bedding, then expand from there. If currently, you don't have enough money to get all these items, consider renting instead. As you make more camping trips your items will upgrade and evolve.
It's easy to keep all the gear organized by using plastic bins with lids. We separate the kitchen items in one bin, personal gear in another, and so on. This way of organizing is so convenient because you can stack the bins in your car instead of having loose items everywhere. The bins keep the items from getting wet, dust, and critters. Having the camping gear in bins makes it so much easier to just grab and go at a moment's notice. All you have to do is go over your checklist to make sure everything is inside the bins and you are all ready to go.
This is vital, it's recommended that you invest in a quality cooler like the Yeti Tundra, it has thick insulation and will keep things cold for a long time. Again, you don't need this right away, you can choose to upgrade as you make more camping trips, however, you do need a good cooler to keep things well refrigerated.
Tips to help your cooler perform to its maximum potential is pre-chill both drink and food before loading it. Buying ice and dumping it into the cooler helps keep food/drinks cool for a longer time. Another, keep your cooler full, the less trapped warm air has to cool, so don't choose a cooler that's too large. Lastly, to maximize efficiency even more separate drinks and food to reduce the number of times people open the coolers.
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This will all depend on what you are in the mood of cooking. Some people will prepare something easy like hamburgers and hotdogs- who doesn't like this? Others prefer to whip up gourmet meals at their campsite. You will need to decide if you would like to cook on a stove, use a grill, not cook at all, or cook over a fire. Some people don't cook and instead look for a restaurant which is also completely fine but it takes the fun away from camping. We usually prefer to either take seasoned chicken or beef to cook over the grill with some simple sides. Other times, we have chosen to only cook burgers and hotdogs.
It's important to keep your campsite clean to keep bears, rodents, and other wildlife from getting a taste for human food. It doesn't take much to practice the Leave No Trace protocol and it improves the way you experience your campsite too. The last thing you want to have is a bear roaming around your tent at night time. In bear country, it's a good idea to store your food in a bear locker, in your car, or properly hang a food bag like the Ursack.
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You can't be prepared for everything but you should have the essentials. You should have a medical kit that can take care of upset stomachs, headaches, sunburn, minor cuts, or scrapes. REI sells the Ultralight Adventure Medical kit that is light enough to carry with you. As you can tell my go-to store for camping/hiking is always REI, they have everything, and best of all, they have great quality items!
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