It's kind of crazy to think that before our big 3 week trip we had only "camped" with Odub once. And that was in Adam's parents' backyard, so not even really camping. So I thought I'd go over some of the gear we had with us that made this trip go smoothly in case anyone else was thinking of camping with toddlers and wanted ideas.
Obviously, the Native Campervan we rented was a HUGE part of our gear, so let's start there. It seems like it would be a pretty good choice of vehicle for two people on a trip. For three, one of whom needed a car seat, it was less ideal. To use the bed, we would have had to completely take out Owen's car seat, which is why we only used the full bed once: when Adam went to bed super early before the Grand Teton. We did use a section of the bed in Rifle as well, for Odub to nap on since there weren't great nap sites at the cliff base. The kitchen in the back was nice & organized and having plates, cups, silverware, pots, & utensils was great. The single burner stove was less useful, especially since the fuel canisters were not a type sold in outdoor gear stores, only at Walmart. We used Jeff's two burner Coleman stove most of the time (especially when we ran out of fuel in the Tetons, hours from the nearest Walmart.) Final thoughts: Nice van for two people, make sure you stock up on stove fuel before heading out anywhere remote though.
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| Keeping a clean van is important! |
Our other huge piece of gear was our tent. We got an REI Half Dome 4 and it was great! Despite some bending in heavy winds in Vedauwoo, the tent held up to many thunderstorms and had plenty of space for two adults and a toddler. With the addition of two REI Camp Bed 3.5 Sleeping Pads it was Odub's favorite hang out spot! The two sleeping pads were equivalent in size to a queen size mattress, so we used a queen size sheet to hold them together and it was great. Odub loved rolling around and playing in the cushy tent.
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| Our tent bent in the strong winds, but did not break! |
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| Tent snuggles! |
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| Plenty of room to snooze or play on the squishy floor! |
The prize for most useful piece of gear that we almost didn't bring has to go to our Kelty Noah's Tarp. I tossed this in at the last minute and it ended up being super helpful. On all those rainy evenings it gave us a dry spot in between the two vehicles to cook and eat dinner. We also used it as a shade in Vedauwoo to give Odub a shady spot to nap without getting sunburned.
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| Dinner under the tarp! |
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| It's a little hard to see because the tarp is the same color as the sky, but that's the tarp between our two vehicles providing a nice dry cooking & eating spot. |
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| If you look carefully in the upper right corner you can see the tarp that is providing nice nap time shade! |
Other than the van, tent, & sleeping pads we used all normal gear for our trip. As you can see above, we just brought a beach towel for cliff-side naps and brought our normal sleeping bags plus a couple fleece blankets for night time sleeping.
Toddler entertainment wise, we brought a small selection of his favorite toys (cars, stuffed animals, & crayons + drawing pad) and books. A lot of places he was very entertained just exploring the cliff base: building towers with rocks, pretending rocks were animals or cars, throwing rocks in puddles or creeks or lakes, or taking walks to look for squirrels (which he was convinced were monkeys) and pretty flowers. Sometimes he did watch a movie on one of our phones, especially when the cliff base was not super toddler friendly or when he was getting tired/grumpy.
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