The Dark Side

mister_d wrote:
I'm looking for testimonials from people that have stayed at CGs without electric hu. Several national parks are on our bucket list and staying on site is appealing to me. However, we have only stayed places with electric thus far. Years ago we tented but we've become accustomed to the luxury and I'm worried about spoiling a vacation.

80% of the time we have no water or elec. I have two 12V batteries and a Honda 2000W gen. I also carry two 7gal water jugs and have a 2nd portable 12V water pump that I use to transfer the jug water to the 5'er. If I didn't dry camp I would be loosing out on some of the best CG's in Oregon. St parks are packed all summer with noisy families so we frequent them in spring and fall.

Go when the weather is mild so you don't need heat or A/C. Many of the National Park campgrounds are in shaded areas and parts of the country where it cools at night. If you use a pair of Golf Cart batteries and watch your power and water usage you should get close to a week of camping. Many National Parks are large or remote and staying on site is the best way to see them. Enjoy.

Learning some general tricks (water-conservation, eletric conservation, camp during mild temps, etc), camping without hook-ups can be great! Couple to three days, pretty easy with current setups of units now-days.

Below is a recap of a campground up on the Blue Ridge Pkwy without any hook-ups, a real gem ~~~

Mile High Cherokee NC

Get out there and make lasting adventures!

Markiemark:C

Around here, there's more competition for the electric sites at the Provincial Parks, even if the non-electric ones are otherwise better.

The non-electric sites are also cheaper.

So it's been really nice since we added solar panels to our trailer to keep the batteries (2x6V) charged.

At one park we were the only ones camping at one of the non-electric sites along the lake-front with a beautiful view and nice breeze; everybody else was back in the woods with the bugs and electricity.

I just spent two months CG hosting in a NP without hookups. I did have both solar and a generator. Also had a portable waste tank that I could tow to the dump station without moving the TT.

That said, one of the biggest "upgrades" that I made before the trip was to replace all the bulbs I normally used in the TT with LEDs. That significantly extended the length of time I could light the TT with the battery before recharge.

There were campers that stayed for days without a generator. Some of them would connect their TT to their TV occasionally and recharge their battery that way.

Enjoy your trip.

You can't spoil a vacation buy not having all the trappings. It's how you recharge by not having all that stuff to deal with.

We never did really get into the deal of full hook ups, we stay in places that don't have all the amenities. Much of the time we are in places that don't even have water and toilets. It is harder to get to some of our favorites now that we tow the 30' Brick.

We have hung on to the idea of making do with what you have and making it last. As Ryan says, LEDs and 2-6Vs can keep you powered for the better part of a week. Doing dishes in a dish pan and using the grey water to flush the toilet makes the water last a lot longer.


There are tons of ideas on how to make do with less and you owe it to yourself to see as much of this world as you can.

By the way we are fully qualified to be seniors, but that don't mean we got to grow up, uh old.

Search this site for boondocking, you will find you don't have to live without much (if anything) just because there's no hookups.

Some people will cut back to minimal, and rough it, other get elaborate with battery banks, solar panels, and 12 to 120 volt power inverters to power their microwaves and hair driers, other still will opt for a quiet inverter generator and run like they were at a full hookup site.

When we state park camp without hookups, we opt for the first option, go minimal, TT lights switched to LED to save battery power, moderate water use (due to small tank, and power use of pump), vent fan at night to keep air moving, following all this on our stock single group 24 battery we can go a bit more than 2 days. If we spent a bit and beefed up our battery bank with a pair of 6 Volt GC1 (golf cart) batteries wired in series (to provide 12v), I imagine we would have the power for nearly a week.