ROAD TRIP: CAMPING PREP | my momma heart

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Of course, there’s prep for food, keeping them busy, and all the planning that goes into the actual route and activities but there was a lot of miscellaneous stuff that needed to get done before our trip. I needed to figure out the packing situation, the laundry situation, the camp bathroom situation, the camp kitchen situation. I mean, there were a lot of situations. So, where did I start? If you know me, you clearly know the answer is a list. I just wrote down all the extra stuff that we needed to consider before our trip. I’ll break it up so it’s not ancheck out the clothes and laundry packing situation coming soon!

First, I wanted to make sure we were prepped for our Yellowstone camping trip. I wasn’t as worried about Custer, South Dakota because it was a shorter trip and because I was used to camping in the Midwest. Bear country brings on a whole new set of rules and we wanted to make sure we were prepared. Honestly, this part of the prep was a lot of buying things which, for better or worse, was necessary. Okay, actually some of it wasn’t. I’ll let you know what I wish we’d NOT bought as well. First up, bear spray. The only thing that made me nervous about being in grizzly territory was thinking of one trying to get into our tent at night. I know that is a ridiculous long-shot but I also know myself well enough to know that I wouldn’t have slept otherwise. So off to REI to get some. REI sucks me in, man. It’s an outdoor enthusiast’s dream and why does everything look so cool and hip and fun? I wouldn’t even consider us serious outdoor people…yet. We definitely have a few years before the boys are carrying tents on their backs as we all head into backcountry but for some reason I still want that amazing 2lb tent. Okay, I digress (and you shouldn’t be surprised). Bear spray. Check.

CAMP KITCHEN

Next, we wanted to make sure our camp kitchen was stocked. Some of this we already in our own kitchen had but we picked up a bunch at Dollar Tree and ordered anything else from REI or Amazon.

A camp sink / I had grand visions of us all cleaning up together after dinner, doing dishes, and then roasting some s’mores. When camping in bear country, you shouldn’t wash dishes at your site.. In Yellowstone this is strictly prohibited. There was a sink to use in each campground loop…with no heated water. There was literally a sign on the faucet that said “Please don’t turn all the way off. Allow to slowly run so the pipes don’t freeze.” Washing dishes in that sink was HORRIBLE. My already cold fingers turned to icicles. We ended up using this camp sink to transport the dirty dishes to the washing station and that’s about it. It was easier in South Dakota, but we could have just used anything to hold the water. I don’t think it’s necessary, but we’ll definitely use it in the future. I’m glad we went with this one and not a more expensive one.
Dishes / I’m not totally sold on these. Look, as casual campers, I think I would have stuck with paper plates. My opinion could be skewed by the fact that I got frost bite by washing them, but honestly, we didn’t need them. We could have gotten by with paper products that we packed out. I know it’s not a great choice for the environment but we don’t use paper any other time so my conscious would feel clean. This was one of those REI-sucked-me-in buys. I do love that it packs up super compactly, the colors mean everyone knows which one is theirs. We actually used our fry baskets with paper much more often. They don’t need to be washed unless someone makes a royal mess, and the waste is minimal from the baker’s paper. They also are very compact but you can’t use them for some of the foods we were making; oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, etc.
Camp utensils / We bought these and loved them. I’m sure they aren’t meant to be used with cast iron, but I did use them to stir eggs. Mostly because I didn’t think about the fact that I’d be cooking on my cast iron and bought METAL cooking utensils. Whoops.
cutting mats*
a knife*
a slotted spoon*
a regular spoon*
a spatula*
a scissors*
a can opener*
tin foil for covering the grill*
dish soap*
sponges*
a couple of microfiber towels for drying*
a hand towel*
Ziploc bags
a cloth tablecloth for the picnic tables
Spices / We are big fans of spices around here and eating bland veggies or meats is not our jam so I bought a pill box and printed some spice labels for it. These are not air (or spice) tight. I made sure to cover the lid and hinges with packing tape and it helped immensely. There was a minimal amount of spice that spilled into our camp kitchen bucket but by the end of the trip, there were more pine needles than spice so I’d say it worked well enough.
Clips to keep dry goods closed / After the kids breaking several plastic clips, we opted for something a little more sturdy
Roasting sticks for s’mores
A portable grill
A large cast iron skillet
A small cast iron skillet
Lodge spray for the skillets
A brush for cleaning skillets
2 silicone handle covers (they were okay, but honestly, didn’t help THAT much)
2 water jugs

All the * are from Dollar Tree. I didn’t want to spend a ton and we didn’t need super high-quality items for our camp kitchen. As things break or get lost, we’ll replace them with better quality ones if we feel it’s necessary but for now, the utensils and some of the other supplies are tossed in a Sterilite container waiting for our next camping trip.

CAMP BATHROOM

The next area that I wanted to make sure we were prepped for was the camp bathroom. We were going in without a clear picture of what bathrooms would look like in Yellowstone and Custer State Park. Would there be multiple showers in one room? Would there be a private shower room? I don’t know that it’s what will work best for everyone but it worked for us. I wanted there to be two bags for toiletries (shampoo, conditioner, soap, lotion, all my getting-ready-junk, etc). I used a sewing pattern for a bag that I already had. It was for a giant beach bag so I just grabbed my spare fabric and made the measurements work for what I had laying around and followed the basic instructions. Technically I screwed both of them up, but, whatever, they worked. One bag was mine and one was for the boys. Mine (BARELY) fit my blow dryer with diffuser, make-up bag with face and teeth supplies, hair products, brush, and saline solution along with my soaps on a rope. The boys’ bag included Brandon’s (and the boys’) hair products, deodorants, and soaps on a rope. I put all their teeth-brushing supplies in a smaller bag so we could just grab it and take it when we needed it. It also fit in their bag.

So what’s with these soaps on a rope? Because I wasn’t sure if everyone would be in their own shower at once, I wanted each person to have their own supplies. I ordered lanyards and travel soap dispensers. The only requirement for the dispensers was that they had a loop at the top something to attach them to the lanyard. Bonus for the linked dispensers? Each one has a twistable label so I didn’t have to write on the containers since even permanent marker seems to come off when a few uses. You can choose: shampoo, conditioner, soap, sunscreen or lotion. Of course you can put whatever you want in them and I considered using them for condiments since they were food safe, but figured we’d be fine with regular-sized bottles. When they arrived, each kiddo got to pick out their lanyard and dispenser colors. These stayed in the toiletry bags and made it easy to grab to take to the camp bathroom or hotel room. When we got home, I just had them use up what was still in the dispensers and then rinsed them out so they are ready for our next trip. The boys just had one container because we use this soap that does double duty as soap and shampoo.

GENERAL CAMP GEAR

Besides the above camping gear, we brought general camping gear; most of which we already had. If this is your first time camping, here is our basic gear:

Tent / We have an 8 person and love that we can fit all of us plus our gear and still have space to get around. The one we have is no longer sold, but this is a close comparison. It’ll be our next tent should our current one fail us.
Footprint for tent
Sleeping pads / We have three for the boys and snap them together to make one large sleeping pad
Air mattress / Until we are backpack camping, we’ll be using an air mattress!
Sleeping bags for the boys / Two of the boys had a different sleeping bag but the one with this one stayed completely warm when it was cold and comfortable when it was hot. We’ve added these to younger boys’ Christmas lists.
Sleeping bags for adults
Quilts / We brought one of Grandma’s handmade quilts for each of us since it was going to be below freezing in Yellowstone.
Pillows / We brought our full-sized pillows since we figured we’d be using them while staying with friends as well
Eye masks / Key for the days where the sun is up earlier or later than you want your kids up
Melatonin gummies / See above. My kids LOVED these and the youngest kept asking for his “night-time vitamin”. Research this before you decide to try. Our peditrican said
Lantern
Head lanterns
Any stuffie or blanket kiddos need to sleep
A small dust pan/hand broom to keep the tent clean
Shelter / We bought this on the way to Yellowstone, mostly because I was afraid of mosquitoes in South Dakota. I ended up getting an awesome deal at Target. We used it to go over our picnic table to keep us out of full sun, and more importantly away from bugs!
Wipes / We knew we wouldn’t likely shower every night even if we planned on it. These wipes worked great on grimy skin after a day of outdoor play. We bought this pack and kept them in the tent, in the car, in the toiletry bags, etc.

Phew! There’s our camping planning in a nutshell. What did I miss? Surely there’s something! We thought after our five days of camping on the road trip, the kids would be camped out. Of course, as soon as we got back to real life they asked when we were going again! I forsee many, many more camping trips in our future.

Follow along with us to see how we planned, prepped, and what adventures we had along the way.