I love Jeep camping. We have done it a few times since getting the Jeep. It’s a good thing we do because we had planned to go camping for a few days with Mike’s sister and her family and his parents. Mike’s sister picked out a location, but upon visiting that location ahead of time, we discovered that Beast just was not going to be able to make it to that location. There was a washed out part of the road that had some bad angles to it–nothing for a truck or jeep, but in a 36 foot Class A–not happening. We could have tried it, but I am so glad we didn’t. Especially after watching my in-laws navigate it in their fifth wheel. They actually came super close to dragging jacks on the ground. Just bad angles. So Mike and I determine to Jeep it, instead of trying to find another location.
After determining this, I had to get is ready for Jeep camping. It’s amazing how much easier it is to just take everything you own (pretty much) with you camping. Instead, I had to do what I did for years living in our “sticks and bricks”. Make a list–pack it up–hope it fits. It did and we were off.
We traveled up I-15 just north of Malad, Idaho. We were dispersed camping just west of Malad Summit Campground on Power House Road. We all fit nicely in a little spot next to the road. There was a beautiful stream running along the one side of the camp that you could hear all the time. I love the sound of a stream as I am falling asleep at night. The kids had a blast playing in the stream.
Malad Summit Campground, it turned out would have worked just fine for us to camp in. There were several sites that Beast could have fit into and there was a place Beast could turn around. So we could have actually brought Beast and we would have stayed in the campground which was a very short walk from where we ended up camping. This is a campground we may come back to at some point. No signal though (which I love, but Mike can’t work).
Just up the road from where we camped, there was a man-made dam that had a really pretty pond it had created. The water flowed over the dam creating a pretty little waterfall. There was moss all over the rocks and it was just a pretty little spot just off the road. I enjoyed visiting it on my morning walks and just sitting for a minute and enjoying the sound of the waterfall and the beauty of nature.
We set up the Jeep for camping. This would be the first time we would actually use the awning we installed on Beauty. It worked absolutely great. It kept the sun off of us when it was hot. It held up in the wind just fine and it worked well in the rain. We got at least one gusher of a rain storm while we were there. During that storm, I hung out under the awning and it kept me dry. Although the gap between the Jeep and the awning allowed rain down the edge of the Jeep (we will need to block that somehow in future. It kept coming down, and eventually I decided to climb into the Jeep to lay down on our bed to wait out the rain. “A bed,” you ask. Yes, we have a bed. It is an air mattress which is specifically made for the Jeep and shaped to fit the back area. It is called a Deep Sleep 4 Jeep Mattress, and it is super comfortable. The only problem with it is that it takes up the entire back and you have to slide the front seats all the way forward. So the jeep is not drivable when the Deep Sleep is set up. We make it up like a bed with sheets and a quilt and we sleep comfy and cozy in the back of the jeep and out of the weather. We love, love, love it.
We set up our new table we got that slides under the roof rack of the jeep and with all of our new jeep boxes and equipment we had a very functional camping situation. We also set up our privacy tent to have a place to change clothes and any other privacy needs, but for the toilet, we ended up finding a tree or going into Mike’s parents’ fifth wheel. It all worked out great at we enjoyed the time with the family.
We did some quad riding and some hiking and playing games in the RVs. Mike and I decided to do some cross country hiking up the side of the mountain. We followed a trail (probably just a game trail) to the top. It was a really cool view from on top. On the way back, we decided to take another less steep route. Well that turned out to be a bit of a disaster as the trail ended and we ended up bush whacking our way to the road. When we got to the road, we couldn’t get up onto the road because it was a very tall, very steep embankment to get up. We were contemplating having to back track about one hour, when luckily at just that moment my brother-in-law and one of his kids drove by on the quad. We were able to get their attention and they were able to help us climb up the bank and onto the road with a helpful hand from above. It turned out that we were only about 200 feet or so from our Jeep. The underbrush was just so thick we couldn’t see a way through. In fact, there wasn’t a way through unless you wanted to walk through some really thick brush and get all scrapped up.
Thank goodness for family. They literally saved us this trip. Such a fun time but all too soon it was over and we were headed further into Idaho to our favorite location we boondocked during the first six months of our travels. More on that later.