Car Camping Essentials: A How to Guide for Your Next Off Grid Adventure
Well it’s officially spring time; the flowers are blooming, trees are filling with green leaves, and the weather is warming up. This weather and bright sunshine is putting me in a great mood- and I am pumped to hit the road this summer! I want to share with you all my car camping essentials to help with your next off grid adventure!
Last year for a few weeks in July and August, I lived out of my Cr-V car camping. I was with my boyfriend, Tyler, and at the time we were newbies that had never camped before.
It was a truly liberating, freeing, amazing experience. But that’s not too say we didn’t get into a few fights and had some restless nights. However, we have another big road trip planned again this year, so it wasn’t all bad I guess. 😉
In this blog post I’ll share how we were able to car camp off grid while on a road trip, and some beginner tips.
kateroamstheworld.com contains affiliate links and is a member of the Amazon LLC Associates Program. If you make a purchase using one of these Amazon links, I may receive compensation at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products I believe in. Read my disclaimer for more information.
Planning your trip? Use my favorite resources!
Accommodation – I recommend Booking.com to find the best deals on hotels.
Flights – I recommend Skyscanner to look for the best prices and deals on flights.
Rental cars – I recommend DiscoverCars to shop around at multiple car rental agencies.
Travel insurance – I recommend Safety Wing; keep your trips insured to protect yourself while traveling.
Tours/experiences – I recommend Viator!
How to Find a Free Campsite
First we’ll start with the basic- where are you going to be car camping? If you want to be fully off grid, whether it’s to find a quiet moment alone or to stay on a low budget, you can do a little research to find a free campsite. Depending on your location, it can be relatively easy to find a free spot, or it can be downright impossible. Certain states or cities are more strict than others about their forest roads and public land than others, and some areas just have more privately- owned land that you obviously cannot camp on.
I typically rely on the phone app ‘Campendium‘ to find free campsites, there are usually reviews and recent reports on cell coverage and road conditions on it. Or try to Google ‘free camping near __’ whatever location you’re headed to. There may be a blog post, forum, or other websites that can connect you to resources to find a free spot.
The general rule of thumb is that BLM land (Bureau of Land Management), and National Forest Roads (NOT National Parks) are pretty safe to camp on as long as there are no signs that camping is prohibited.
Another good tip is to spot a site that looks like someone has camped there before- look for a fire ring, picnic table, or tent site.
However I can’t stress this enough with finding these spots- be prepared. Know where you’re going with a map downloaded, know road conditions and if your vehicle is appropriate, have a full tank of gas, and let someone know where you’re going. Some of the spots you’ll find are far from town with no cell service, and could be a rough road. Be prepared and be safe!
Sleeping
We camp in a Smittybilt Overlander Rooftop Tent. The first time I saw rooftop tents online I thought they were perfect for car camping! You can camp outdoors, anywhere you want with minimal setup, and off the ground away from the critters? Sounds perfect! We’ve spent 30+ nights in the tent at this point and even though RTTs carry a hefty price tag, it’s made very well and is very comfortable. It feels like a little treehouse when we’re up there! And it’s so big you can sit up in it to maybe play cards and eat if you wanted to.
We sleep in a North Face Double Sleeping Bag with some fleece blankets on top. The RTT has a pretty thick mattress pad that feels sufficient for underneath us. We’ve slept in this in the 20s in Utah, and the sleeping bag is definitely not made for that.. but we survived the night with lots of layers on LOL.
Other options to camp of course include a regular tent, van, camper, RV, or you could put the seats down in your car and sleep in the back!
Getting Power and Electricity
If you’re going to be car camping for multiple days at a time, you’re probably going to need some power. I decided to get solar panels and a battery as a sort of an investment because I knew we were going to be doing this pretty often. If you’re only going for one week long road trip- I’m not sure this whole set up is necessary. Just use your car to charge phones and try to be more minimalist.
I have these Jackery solar panels to charge my Jackery battery. I really enjoy them both and find to be very high quality. It’s perfect when you’re lounging at a lake, or at your campsite to be able to charge up the battery through the sun. When we have full sun, it takes only a few hours to fully charge that bad boy. The battery also has a port that can charge larger things such as a laptop, so its perfect for us! We can easily charge phones, cameras, lights, or little fans with it too. So the Jackery solar panels and battery combo is a lifesaver and really convenient!
Eating
As our road trips have gone on, we ironically got worse at making food while we camp. Sometimes the days are just too tiring from hiking, exploring, or driving to be cooking up some fancy camp meal. Instead, we relied on simple to eat and make food like ramen, PB&Js, lunch meat & cheese wraps, fruit, veggies with hummus, nuts, trail bars, etc. However, we have meal prepped chicken to eat with salad, made yummy breakfast burritos, cooked big pasta meals, and much more on our camp stove.
Our supplies:
- You can’t go wrong with the old reliable Coleman two burner grill. She works like a charm.
- To keep our food cold, we use this Igloo cooler. In warmer temps in the 70s-80s, it will keep food cold for only two days, but it’s sufficient. We stock up on ice along the way at gas stations.
- To boil water for coffee, tea, and to heat up dehydrated meals we use a Jetboil. It’s very convenient and boils water very fast!
- We got this set that has a small cutting board and some knives for preparing meals that works great.
- And this cookware set that has pots and pans. I’m not sure I’d fully recommend it though as its not the bestttt quality and is hard to clean.
- However, this cast iron skillet is fantastic for cooking at camp.
- We do have a set of plates/cups; but to be honest we usually use paper bowls & plates when we camp for less cleanup. Not the best for the environment, but I’m not just being honest! For coffee I just use my reusable tumblers.
- You’ll want some campsuds soap to wash your dishes with as well.
- For water, I always try to have excess- especially if you plan to be outside a lot and plan to be washing dishes & showering while car camping. We usually pick up a few gallons from the store, fill up all the water bottles we have, as well as take this 5.3 gallon water jug with spigot. The spigot really comes in handy when you want to wash dishes or your hands or face. I love it!
Going to the Bathroom
Ah, the dreaded bathroom questions!! If you’re like me at the start of all of this and had never peed or pooped outdoors, this all may sounds crazy to you. However, after being in the car so much this past year, being in the wilderness, and camping, I feel like it’s just second nature.
We initially bought a Luggable Loo Portable Toilet– which is just a bucket with a toilet seat on it LOL. However the more we went along the road trip, we realized it was a lot of work to set this pop up tent up and having bags of our waste with no trash can in sight. It all of a sudden sounded like a terrible idea… Plus we soon realized- the world is our toilet!
So, instead we have wag bags for going #2 that we grin and bear (literally) to use during emergencies, and then just pee in the great outdoors! My usual method as a girl is to open two of the car doors on one side of the car and squat in between them so that no one would be able to see unless you’re standing right in front of me. I hope that makes sense- it works! And of course, pack out your toilet paper!
Showering
If you’re noticing the running theme of this blog post is that we kept getting lazier with our car camping setup off grid… you’re right. Because we bought a whole shower set up that we generally don’t use at all anymore haha.
However, if you want to take a semi ‘real’ shower, you’ll want to look into this set up. If not, keep reading below for the more ‘rough it’ style of getting clean.
- First we would pop up this shower tent for privacy if you’re around other people.
- Gather all your shower supplies in a small basket and if you’re lucky and you and your partner aren’t shy, have them help you! Usually we would have one person in the shower tent and the other person was hosing them off with the shower head and handing them their soap.
- We used this great camping shower pump with handheld shower head in the great outdoors. It has pretty good water pressure for showers, however if you’re camping with not much access to water, it sucks because it will suck up all the water in a bucket in about 1 minute! So we would turn it on for just as long to get wet, turn it off, suds up, and then rinse off and that worked fine.
- I got these awesome towels that are microfiber and quick drying- which is something you need while camping. The last thing you want is wet smelly towels in the car!
Okay, now for ‘rough it’ version!
Baby wipes will be your best friend! Give yourself a good wipe down to get the grime off. Next, take a water bottle, a washcloth, and a bar of soap and give yourself a good scrub. Just get all the important and dirty parts. Honestly even when I’m really dirty from hiking, just doing that makes me feel clean and so much better. For girls- I also really recommend some feminine wipes to use as well. Just makes that area a little more fresh! I also use a lot of baby powder camping to keep everything fresh. To wash your hair- grab someone and have them just dump water over your head while you wash it! Getting clean in the outdoors can really just be as simple as that.
Keeping Things Organized
Camping out of your car with no amenities around you can get messy quick. Here are some tips for staying organized:
- Keep designated trash & recycle bags and have extra bags in the car. You don’t want trash lying around your campsite or your car.
- Everything such as your clothes, camping supplies, and toiletries should have a designated ‘spot’. Make your life easier and each time you use something- put it back where it’s supposed to be.
- Keep a laundry basket in the car for dirty laundry so nothing gets mixed up.
- Keep ‘like’ things together in bins. For example, keep all your cutlery, plates, and cooking supplies in one bin together and all your shower supplies in another bin.
- We have a shelf built up in the back of the Cr-V so we can keep all of our camping supplies like the stove and bins underneath it, while our cooler and food is on top of it. It’s way more organized and we can actually fit more things in it this way.
My Favorite Off Grid Campsites so Far
My all time favorite site has been the ‘Edge of the World’ in Arizona. See my blog post about that here!
Next is Valley of the Gods in Utah. We went in November and it was below freezing at night, but the sunset and sunrise here was just incredible! Plus we were very far away from anyone else which is always peaceful.
Lake Powell is one of my favorite places, so of course camping right next to it at Lone Rock has to make this list. This isn’t a secluded campground, but there aren’t many amenities here.
Colorado has some great dispersed car camping options. Here’s some pictures from a spot we stayed near Telluride- just beautiful!
Next we stayed at a spot you can read about in this blog post, on our way to the Great Sand Dunes.
If you’re going to hike the San Juans, camping near American Basin is a great option! We spent two nights here and it was lovely.
And our off grid site in Sedona was perfect for seeing the Milky Way!
If you enjoyed my content and found it helpful for your next trip, please like this post, subscribe to my blog, and follow me on Instagram for more travel inspiration. Thanks for reading! 🙂
