North America Trip in 2013

I have changed to stay in Sundance on the night before we travel to Yellowstone as that is a very long journey!!

I have seen a place called the Bear Lodge Motel it looks quite cool actually!

As I am backpacking around the world I need some compact tenting equipment that will fit in a backpack, would you know of any products that can help?
I am hoping we can use it in the other countries we visit as well.

Also on another note might be a "blonde" question in the campgrounds do we keep the same pitch if we stay there for more than one night?

Do you have any advice on how I can cook food in these campsite and or electricity if there is any?

The advice has really made a difference to my trip and I really can't wait to go and I'm sure there will be trials and tribulations on the way if you have any more advice that would be greatly appreciated and again thank you for all your help!

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Also on another note might be a "blonde" question in the campgrounds do we keep the same pitch if we stay there for more than one night?

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If you have reservations you will keep the same pitch. If you do not have reservations and someone else has reserved the pitch you are on then you would have to move site, if another one was available that is, or else you would have to move on.

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Do you have any advice on how I can cook food in these campsite and or electricity if there is any?

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Small portable gas stoves would be the way to go. Sites with electric will be listed as 'Hook up'.

Heres a thread that covers a list of Camping gear.

Heres a 'What do you pack in your trunk' thread

Budgeting tips and eating out of the Cooler. [A handy thing to have]

That will hopefully give you some ideas to pick and choose from and you will find much more exploring the site, as new questions come up, just ask !

It is quite easy to pick up fairly cheap tents in the big box stores... but I would not regard them as 'backpacking' tents. They generally are not lightweight, nor are they compact. For that sort of equipment you are better off going to the specialty stores, such as REI and Cabellas. Neither are cheap! Check out their online catalogues.

Denver in particular, and CO in general is where some of the best backpacking equipment comes from. The REI store in Denver downtown is their flagship store. If you go there, allow yourself a little time to see the store, learn its history, and generally, enjoy the magnificance of it. (I have a feeling that all the Cabella stores are in States east of Denver.)

For second hand equipment, check out Craigslist. I was fortunate to pick up a lot of my camping equipment that way, almost a decade ago now. Just log on, and look in Denver and surrounds, some weeks (or even months) beforehand. Then see if you can arrange to pick it up when you get there.

Most camp grounds will let you stay in the one spot, if you are booking in for multiple days - even if you have not booked beforehand. As for cooking, once again, you can pick up backpacking camp stoves at the stores I mentioned. If you are planning to take any of this on the rest of your round the world trip, make sure that the thread for the fuel containers is compatible with what you will be able to get in other countries. US screw threads often are not.

Some campgrounds have camp kitchens, but not all that many. Commercial campgrounds will often have a microwave oven you can use. It is not usual for tent sites to have electricity.... but with all the technology people carry around these days, you may find that some now do.

Remember, if you are going to be cooking, you will also need equipment... a good cookset, plate, cutlery, etc. [Not sure if you have Trangia in England. I have a Trangia Stove and Cookset (Sweden) which comes with me everywhere. But these are not seen in the US, nor is the fuel readily available, though now they come with gas as well as metho. Problem is, the thread on the gas fitting is not compatible with US gas containers.]

Hope this helps.

Lifey

Hi Ben -

I've done some tent camping in the areas where you're headed. If your timetable allows it, tent camping in the Badlands NP is an experience. It's wide open, warm (at least when we were there!), and quite amazing if a thunderstorm rolls through. (No showers though.) Also, if you're planning on any time in Custer State Park, there are several nice campgrounds there.

I think you already have Canyon Campground listed on your stay for Yellowstone. It's about as centrally-located as you can get in the Park. The campground itself is packed in, but there are showers available. It can get cold at night - bring extra blankets. Big plus for camping in Yellowstone: you may wake up at night to the sound of howling wolves. :)

Grand Teton - We haven't camped at Jenny Lake, but have camped on two separate occasions at Signal Mountain. Beautiful, quiet, just spectacular. I love it there!! You can't reserve in GT ahead of time, but there is a phone number you can call the day you plan to get there & a recording will tell you what time the various campgrounds filled up the day before. Very helpful! Jenny Lake tends to fill up first. There are showers available at Colter Bay. Like Yellowstone, it can get really cold here at night. I woke up in August to a 25F morning - in a thin sweatshirt. Brrrr!

Bryce Canyon - We stayed a couple of nights at the Sunset Campground in the park. Loved it! Not too packed in, and we enjoyed being close to the canyon to see sunrise & sunset without a lot of hassle. If the rangers offer a night sky program while you're there, go! There are pay showers at the general store in the park.

Grand Canyon - I haven't camped there (we stayed in one of the cheaper rooms at Bright Angel Lodge), but would definitely recommend staying/camping in the park because it's quite a drive in and out.

Book camping in the parks - especially Yellowstone - as soon as you can. I remember a line of people waiting at Canyon campground, only to be told there weren't any sites available.

Thanks guys, great appreciated for all the info. I have a couple of questions to ask......

1) I have tried to book my Yellowstone campsite and they have asked me for length dimensions in feet including the tent. As I am renting a car I have no idea on what car it may be and the tent will only be a 2 berth one of them poles tent. Can someone give me an idea of how big of a site I will need? I think we are going to have a Ford Focus or something of similar size.

2) I am looking at going from Rapid City area to Yellowstone with a stop at Sundance overnight to break up the long journey but cannot seem to find a cheap hotel at all they are all $95+ I am looking at maximum $50-60 if possible? Or is there somewhere else I could stay on my way (we would be driving from Badlands in the afternoon to Yellowstone technically)

Thanks again!

Ben

At Yellowstone, if you are in a tent, you should only need to provide the size of your tent. The vehicle size only matters if you are in an RV. They have different sized sites and areas depending upon the size of your tent/rv, but your rental car size should not matter. Any reference to "including your vehicle" would be specific to people pulling travel trailers, or towing a car behind their RV.

For example, my tent is 10'x12,' so I needed a Large Tent site.

Spearfish SD or Gillette WY would be probably your best options to expand your hotel search.

Thanks for the location info.

I have yet to buy a tent but will be this weekend hopefully, so I will know the exact lengths (if they have it in stock) but the exact wording that is provided when selecting drop down menu stating Tent(s) with 1 vehicle -

Please provide the dimensions of each tent, plus the length of your vehicle, with all towed equipment, in feet. Please use "ft" to indicate "feet" and do not use special characters such as , /, ^, " or '

I'm happy to put just my tent info but it does state in bold letters -

It's your responsibility to book a site large enough to accommodate all of your equipment. Clicking the thumbnail pictures below will display detailed capacity information for each of the sites displayed.
You can also click here for a summary of camping and RV sites
available on-line, along with their respective capacities.

All that's happening here Ben is they are making it your responsibility to make sure all the equipment you have will fit on the site. People are probably in the habit of turning up with extra tents and a couple of extra cars and trailers and then moan that they can't fit on the site they booked.

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Clicking the thumbnail pictures below will display detailed capacity information for each of the sites displayed.

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By clicking on the image on the Bridge Bay campground I got 3 options and selected Large tent site only and got the following info.

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Capacity for Bridge Bay Campground Large Tent-Only Site:
One large tent, 12'x12' or smaller and 2 cars or
Two small tents, each 8'x8' or smaller and 2 cars

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That will be plenty big enough and unless you entered equipment size that exceeded the above mentioned options you will be fine.

When asking for your equipment size just veer on the side of caution as there is no harm in having a site a little bigger than you need, but is a problem if it's not big enough ! The options are for the maximum capacity of the site and you won't be anywhere near that anyway.

So check out the vehicle lenght, 16 feet should cover up to a mid-size sedan[and you won't have a trailer], plus your tent size. If you are thinking 6ft x 8ft but unsure you could cover yourself and say 8ft x 10ft, but it's important to keep it as near as sensibly possible so that someone with a big outfit doesn't miss out on a site that might be much bigger than you actually need.

The tent I have been looking at is 10.6ft x 5.2ft (320cm x 155cm)

If you add any dates on the website and try to book it that message comes up with the size of the vehicle so in the box do I type

11ft x 6ft and mid sized car or just 11ft x 6ft and car 8ft x 5ft or just my tent size 11ft x 6ft??? Its really confusing me!

Thanks for all your help guys

Ben

Once you have selected 'Tent with 1 Vehicle', you need to enter tent dimensions [11ft X 6ft] and vehicle lenght [16ft or whatever?]

I would think that if they don't have the right info it will not allow you to commence booking. As I mentioned before, if you are happy that the site accomodates your tent and car you don't have anything to worry about.

Dave.

Our trip from Autralia last year was just on $12k for 6 weeks. $3k was airfares.$5k was vehicle hire and the remainding $4k was for food,motel here and there,fuel camping and RV parks.
We worked on allowing $100 per day for fuel and meals,caming fees or RV park.It did average out at about that for the trip.
Living in a new country with a budget of $3k a month will be tight.

John