Camping in Moab

As we planned out the trip, a constant debate between Laura and me was how often we would camp versus stay in hotels. I’m not what you would call out-doorsy, and I’ve only been camping a handful of times in my life. Further, after a few years traveling as a consultant, I’ve become very comfortable staying in hotels, which have often been in rural locales such as Monroe, LA and Salisbury, NC.

On the other hand, Laura was stoked about camping as we drove through the Wild, Wild West. She assumed that we’d be regularly building camp fires and sleeping under the stars.

After drawing out our route, creating a rough budget, and further discussing the camping vs. hotel decision, we decided to camp ~15-20% of the trip, in Southern Utah, Yosemite, and Big Sur. (A special thanks to Alex Lonergan for letting us borrow the camping gear).

Day one of camping was suddenly upon us in Bryce Canyon. However, we ran into some complications. It was going to dip into the lower 30s at night, we were running behind schedule on the drive and didn’t arrive at the campgrounds until 8 pm, well after everyone else at the site was set-up and snuggling up around their campfires. Further, we forgot to buy firewood at our last gas stop. As native Floridians scared of the cold even though we had the necessary gear to keep warm, we chickened out and stayed at a cheap local motel down the street, sleeping in a warm bed.

While the next statement seems ironic, our resolve to camp strengthened and we rode into Moab on time with firewood in tow to camp for our first time on the trip. It turned out that the firewood was unnecessary, as fire precautions restricted use to solely charcoal at each camp site’s BBQ.

We quickly pitched the tent, got the fire going, cooked turkey dogs, chef boy R dee ravioli (first time for me since college), and corn for dinner. After chowing down on dinner, we made s’mores over the fire before staring up at the stars and getting to bed.

The next two nights were pleasantly uneventful and we had a good time sleeping in the great outdoors.