Getting Away: Car Camping Essentials
By Jonathan Berohn
Car camping, as those of you who do it undoubtedly know, is a great way to split the difference between full-blown backpacking and the same old boring hotel.
It's an especially appealing option if you have kids who like the outdoors but aren't quite up for toting 25-30 pounds on their back for 10 or 15 miles. To get the most out of your car camping excursion, there are a few items you should add to your camping supplies to take advantage of the fact that with a car comes comfort that you just can't lug with you on a trail.
The Car Camping State of Mind
The first thing to understand here is that car camping does not mean sleeping in an RV. Whatever you'd call that-evil devil's corruption comes to mind-it's not camping. Camping = tent. That's not to say you can't have luxuries. As I said, when you go car camping, you have the advantage of bringing along a several thousand pound backpack that does all the heavy lifting for you. If you take advantage of what the car lets you bring, you will certainly maximize the enjoyment of your car camping experience.
Sleeping
One of the best camping/backpacking purchases I've ever made is my Thermarest self-inflating mattress. When I go car camping, though, I leave it safely at home in the basement closet. First of all, a lot of car camping tent sites are gravel or even cement. For all their wonderful comfort, Thermarests just don't cut it in those kinds of conditions. What you need-and what you can afford to bring in the car-is an air mattress. And we're talking full blown regular-bed size mattresses here. Blow one of those babies up, and you're set for the night.
There are a couple things to look for in a good air mattress. First, you want one with velour or some other fabric on the top. If you go for an all-plastic model, you and your sleeping bag will find yourselves in a pile on the bottom of the tent. Second you want to get a mattress that has multiple inflation options. I know from experience that electric mattress pumps break and/or run out of battery life. If all you have to blow up your mattress is the electric pump and it konks out on you.well, an uninflated mattress doesn't help much. With that in mind, be sure to buy a hand or foot pump that works with the mattress you buy. Finally, make sure you measure your tent's floorspace before you buy a mattress. There's not much worse than being at the camp site and realizing your mattress doesn't fit in the tent. Coleman and Intex both make very good air mattresses. You can't go wrong with either one.
Cooking
Obviously, the camping cooking options open up considerably when you can use the car as your pantry.
To truly take advantage of these options, though, you'll want to have a better cooking device that either a backpacking stove or the trusty old campfire. Sure, the backpacking stove is quick, and the campfire is reliable, but you can combine the best of both worlds with a two-burner camp stove. These come in especially handy if you happen to camp anywhere that has fire restrictions. Usually you can still use camp stoves even when campfires are prohibited.
When selecting a camp stove, you definitely want the two-burner variety. The price difference from 1 to 2 burners isn't that much, and the flexibility that 2 burners give you is well worth the extra expense. I would also strongly recommend a propane stove over a gasoline fuel stove. The mechanism for a gasoline fuel stove has a way of becoming unreliable far easier than that on a propane stove. And the little propane canisters these stoves use are both easy to pack and easy to find when you need a new one. Again Coleman offers a number of stove models that will fit your car camping needs very well.
Shelter
You will, of course, need a tent to, in fact, be able to sleep in a tent. This brilliant logic is also the same logic for any camping/backpacking trip. What car camping lets you add, though, is a protective tarp for dining and just hanging out. Nothing ruins a camping trip faster than sitting in the tent all day when it rains. If you hang up a tarp, though, you can at least escape the claustrophobia of the tent (and the whining of your kids). You can, of course, get by with any old tarp if you take the time to rig it well. If you want a specialty camping tarp, both Kelty and MSR offer tarps that will give you both a little more stability and ease of set up.
Buying Gear
Any good outdoor store like REI or EMS will have pretty much any of these items. If neither one of those is convenient for you, a good sporting goods store, or even a large discount store will have many of the items you need.