How long can you realistically dry camp?
Never having dry camped before, we plan to do so on our trip out west this summer. We'll be gone for 3 months, and we'll be looking for ways to camp a little cheaper for some nights. We have a gener...
Forum Discussion
Okay....to answer some of your questions. It's just the 2 of us pulling a 30-ft. travel trailer (Everlite by Evergreen). We have 2 6-volt batteries, but no solar. We only have a 40-gallon fresh water tank, 58-gallon gray water (we have 2 gray tanks), and 29-gallon black water. We do have a Honda generator, but off hand I can't remember how powerful it is.
As for pulling with fresh water tanks.....we have been told it's best to not pull with them full, but I think that was just in our particular case because we're close to our limit weight-wise. So for those of you without weight constraints....great! But we only travel with just a few gallons on our tanks. We do have a large blue 5-gallon water jug, so keeping that full as a back-up would make sense.
Off Pavement.....thanks for that fantastic link to the dry camping info. Overall, that's just a wonderful site to bookmark for future reference.
We can go without a shower every day, and I can wash my (thick) hair in the sink. We don't usually use paper plates/cups/utensils when we camp, but we could break that rule while dry camping so we wouldn't have to wash many dishes. And I also read that it's legal to 'disperse' your dish water on the ground rather than draining it down your pipes. That would help a lot.
We have LED lights in our RV, and we always have plenty of flashlights. I wonder about the LP and furnace if it gets really cold. Would we be able to run it all night without running everything down? We'll be in Yellowstone NP, and last time we were there it snowed in August and our pipes froze. We wouldn't use the furnace during the day....only at night, and we could turn the thermostat way down and put on an extra blanket.
The reason I'm asking all of these questions is we're considering whether to risk it and try to camp in one of the campgrounds in Yellowstone that work on a first-come, first-served basis. We currently have reservations at Fishing Bridge, but it's so expensive, and we're virtually never at the campground when we're at the park, so I'm thinking about exploring other options. Plus, during our 3-month travels this summer, we're likely going to have opportunities to camp in forest service campgrounds, etc.
We have the Senior Golden Age Pass that gets us in to campgrounds for 1/2 price (or free.....not sure). That's such a bargain! So we'd like to utilize the campgrounds that will allow us to utilize that card. Fishing Bridge is operated privately and does not honor the discount.
Didn't know there was a tote you could get for gray water.....will have to check it out.
Thanks again for all of your feedback!
As for pulling with fresh water tanks.....we have been told it's best to not pull with them full, but I think that was just in our particular case because we're close to our limit weight-wise. So for those of you without weight constraints....great! But we only travel with just a few gallons on our tanks. We do have a large blue 5-gallon water jug, so keeping that full as a back-up would make sense.
Off Pavement.....thanks for that fantastic link to the dry camping info. Overall, that's just a wonderful site to bookmark for future reference.
We can go without a shower every day, and I can wash my (thick) hair in the sink. We don't usually use paper plates/cups/utensils when we camp, but we could break that rule while dry camping so we wouldn't have to wash many dishes. And I also read that it's legal to 'disperse' your dish water on the ground rather than draining it down your pipes. That would help a lot.
We have LED lights in our RV, and we always have plenty of flashlights. I wonder about the LP and furnace if it gets really cold. Would we be able to run it all night without running everything down? We'll be in Yellowstone NP, and last time we were there it snowed in August and our pipes froze. We wouldn't use the furnace during the day....only at night, and we could turn the thermostat way down and put on an extra blanket.
The reason I'm asking all of these questions is we're considering whether to risk it and try to camp in one of the campgrounds in Yellowstone that work on a first-come, first-served basis. We currently have reservations at Fishing Bridge, but it's so expensive, and we're virtually never at the campground when we're at the park, so I'm thinking about exploring other options. Plus, during our 3-month travels this summer, we're likely going to have opportunities to camp in forest service campgrounds, etc.
We have the Senior Golden Age Pass that gets us in to campgrounds for 1/2 price (or free.....not sure). That's such a bargain! So we'd like to utilize the campgrounds that will allow us to utilize that card. Fishing Bridge is operated privately and does not honor the discount.
Didn't know there was a tote you could get for gray water.....will have to check it out.
Thanks again for all of your feedback!
