Interested in Camping info?

 My family also loves to camp!  Our favorite way to do this affordably is to stay on Government owned land (BLM land) because it is free.  This does mean you won't have flushing toilets, showers, or hookups to electricity like some campgrounds offer, so if you are doing this long term, it's best if you have a trailer or RV and a large water tank!  Here are some of my camping recommendations.

Freecampsites.net is a good resource online for free sites, for example

A great free site in Island Park (near Yellowstone) 

A great place near Bear lake is a dirt road on the right side just before sunrise campground.  There are usually tons of places to camp along that road and it's free.  It does help that we have a trailer, so we dont need an official campground.

I also recommend this e-book, it has lots of great info and suggestions for free campsites near all the national parks and other great sights.

Our favorite spot to go dirt biking and camping for a quick weekend getaway is out at "The Knolls".  It's west of Tooele (on the way to Wendover).  It's closer for us and less crowded than the Utah Sand Dunes, so we really like it.

We have also done trips to Glacier National Park, Mount Rushmore, the Oregon Coast, and Yosemite and HIGHLY recommend all of them!  Here's a few tips for each of them...

Glacier: We broke this up into 2 days of driving, so we stayed in Jackson Hole on the way up, and Island Park on the way back.  Another option is staying in nearby Coeur d'Alene and doing the Hiawatha bike trail!  We stayed at Fish Creek Campground at Lake McDonald and it is GORGEOUS.  Just be sure to book in January for a stay in June.  It's cold in June but less crowded.  The famous road "going to the sun" usually opens the end of June so keep that in mind.  

Mount Rushmore: We broke the driving up into 2 days and stayed near Casper, Wyoming.  We camped at Pactola Lake, site #35 is the best, and it was pretty centrally located for all the sites in the area.  We recommend visiting the Cosmos Mystery area, Wind or Jewel cave, driving the Iron Mountain Hwy, and drive the Needles Hwy to Sylvan Lake and the "Needles Eye".

Oregon Coast: We stayed in Boise, then continued the next day to Cannon beach (with a quick stop at Multnomah Falls).  We stayed at the Cannon Beach RV park, it was $64 a night but includes a pool and hot tub which we really enjoyed - it was so cold there, even when we went in July!  We drove up to Astoria for the day and saw the Goonies house and enjoyed climbing the Astoria Column.  The next day we drove with the trailer to our next campsite at Cape Lookout ($42) with a stop at Kelly's Marina in Nehalem Bay for crabbing.  This was a highlight of our trip! We rented the boat so that we could catch a lot of crabs in a quick amount of time, and then they cooked them for us and we enjoyed our lunch.  We enjoyed seeing Cape Kiwanda near our campsite and the tide pools there.  The next day we hitched up the trailer again and headed to Newport with a stop at the Tillamook factory and Devil's Punchbowl on the way.  We camped at South Beach ($39).  The next day we did Yaquina Lighthouse and the tide pools.  We spent the afternoon at Agate beach and it was warmer than any other beach because the wind is blocked by the cape.   We then headed with our trailer to Silver Falls State Park for the night and enjoyed some of the hikes to waterfalls the next day before heading home.

Yosemite: It is RIDICOULOUSY hard to get a campsite in Yosemite, plus the drive from the west entrance is pretty much impossible if you're pulling a big rig.  For this reason I recommend driving to Mammoth, California.  Stay and enjoy the area for a day or two, then leave your trailer (there are lots of free sites and lots of campgrounds), then head into Yosemite and get an airbnb for 1 or 2 nights that is right in the park.  We stayed in the Yosemite West village and the proximity to all the sights was so helpful.  The other option (if you are able to get a campsite in Yosemite or at Yosemite Lakes RV Park) is to drive your trailer through Modesto to El Portal into the park on hwy 140, AVOID hwy 120 with a trailer.  You could stay in Lake Tahoe on the way if you did this option.

Items you'll need to stock your new trailer or RV with:

Toilet Paper (the special kind for trailers that dissolves easily).  I'd buy a bulk box and then just store it in your house and take out a pack each time you go camping

Toilet pellets (you drop one in the toilet each time you go camping)

We keep a metal fire pan in our trailer (some campgrounds require that you have one for fires)

I keep my kids sleeping bags and pillows in the trailer (pillows on my bed in the trailer stay in there as well) so I don't have to pack bedding every time.

We have a solar battery that is handy for charging things without using the generator

I always have an emergency stash of wood and a pack of water bottles that we generally don't use, but it's in the storage area just in case.

Shovel, ax, drill

I keep some pantry items in there that don't expire for a long time (Mac n cheese, ramen noodles, pasta, microwave popcorn, canned food, pancake mix, etc.)

we have mirror extension things that Matt attaches to our car side-view mirrors 

sand/beach toys and fishing gear

I recently bought this raft on Amazon that will be fun to use whenever we camp by lakes.  It's a great/sturdy raft for the price!

I attached hooks to the walls for my kids jackets, an over the door hook for towels in the bathroom, hooks in our garage area for helmets and backpacks, a shoe holder that hangs on our hall bathroom door so their shoes aren't all over the floor

wheel chocks, trailer hitch lock, leveling blocks (for sites that aren't level and you need to drive up onto something to make the trailer more level)

water pressure regulator (for use in RV parks with hookups)

electrical converters (for use in RV parks with hookups for 50amp, 30 amp, etc)

sewage hoses, attachments, and gear

grey water hose (you could probably use any hose), and a new clean water hose (it's white)

bubble leveler (it may have auto levels on your trailer already)

our trailer originally had a hand crank lift, we upgraded to auto lift jack and that is a life saver 

we also upgraded to have solar panels installed on the roof with an inverter