|
|
Cottonwood Canyon Rd., north of Big Water, Utah
Welcome to the site! If you are looking for a little more peace and quiet when you want to get away,
I hope the info here will help you. I'm "Cookie", and me and my husband, "Lucky", have been camping
for about 20 years. We have a six year old, "Muley", and she's been camping with us since she was
two. We live in Texas, and enjoy going to Big Bend National Park (NP), Guadalupe Mtns NP, and the
four corners area. We spend about 6 weeks spread out over a year sleeping in a tent, we just wish it
could be more!
Our first trip was to Enchanted Rock State Park outside Fredericksburg, TX. We took everything we could think of-and more- for that trip. We drove an old Chevy Custom Deluxe loaded down with stuff like "Sanford and son". We had a cabin style tent with a screened in porch; not the best in high winds, and it didn't even come with a rainfly.
When we first started, there was one reason I did not like to camp: I couldn't get a good nights sleep. We tried air mattresses, foam pads, layers of blankets; but nothing was comfortable. After discovering therma-a-rest sleeping pads, everything changed (it did take many years of sleepless nights till we found them).After a lot of trial and error, we have refined what we need and how we get there. In 1998 we purchased a Toyato Tacoma 4-wheel drive truck. That opened up an entire new world to us-backcountry camping. The next year we hit the Grand Canyon NP, Zion NP & Bryce NP. The parks were stunning, but the campgrounds left a lot to be desired. Besides not having any privacy, you were at the whim of your "neighbors" and their noise. Driving from park to park we started to notice all the BLM land and National Forest land that surrounded a lot of the parks. It didn't take much for us to figure out we would rather camp for FREE and not have any "neighbors" around. But, even when you think you are our in the middle of no-where, your'e not. It is hard to go anywhere now and really get away from everyone. Once you can accept the idea that you don't need bathrooms or electricity, the sky is the limit--well, your vehicle is actually the limit. Hope you find something useful here that lights a fire for you to get out there!
Our first trip was to Enchanted Rock State Park outside Fredericksburg, TX. We took everything we could think of-and more- for that trip. We drove an old Chevy Custom Deluxe loaded down with stuff like "Sanford and son". We had a cabin style tent with a screened in porch; not the best in high winds, and it didn't even come with a rainfly.
When we first started, there was one reason I did not like to camp: I couldn't get a good nights sleep. We tried air mattresses, foam pads, layers of blankets; but nothing was comfortable. After discovering therma-a-rest sleeping pads, everything changed (it did take many years of sleepless nights till we found them).After a lot of trial and error, we have refined what we need and how we get there. In 1998 we purchased a Toyato Tacoma 4-wheel drive truck. That opened up an entire new world to us-backcountry camping. The next year we hit the Grand Canyon NP, Zion NP & Bryce NP. The parks were stunning, but the campgrounds left a lot to be desired. Besides not having any privacy, you were at the whim of your "neighbors" and their noise. Driving from park to park we started to notice all the BLM land and National Forest land that surrounded a lot of the parks. It didn't take much for us to figure out we would rather camp for FREE and not have any "neighbors" around. But, even when you think you are our in the middle of no-where, your'e not. It is hard to go anywhere now and really get away from everyone. Once you can accept the idea that you don't need bathrooms or electricity, the sky is the limit--well, your vehicle is actually the limit. Hope you find something useful here that lights a fire for you to get out there!
"Yellow Rock"
contact us: cookie@beyondthecampground.com
backcountry camping for the whole family