Boondocking 101

D- not an epic fail but needs improvement

By Time2Geaux Unplugged

September 19^th, 2018

Quote: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again." Thomas H. Palmer

We left out of Utah with fall in the air, headed north to Grand Teton National Park with hopes of getting one of the walk-up camping spots that night and moving to a site with power the next morning. JoAnn thought the plan foolish but I felt that we were after the Labor Day vacation season and should be fine. We were able to secure a spot in the dry camping area, first come/first serve section but the ranger at the gate all but laughed at our plan to move to the section that had power. He said there were three with ADA cards waiting for the spots opening up. We were lucky to get into the generator loop, taking the last spot available. We were only planning to stay for 3 to 4 days so we should have enough propane for that length stay. Cool nights and plenty of propane for heat, we should be good. We had filled our fresh water tank most the way so while not ideal, it should be quite comfortable. The park rules are you cannot run your generator between 8PM and 8AM but we have a battery and 12V systems…so this will be our first taste of ‘real camping’.

The next morning taught us that we were not as prepared as we thought… the inside of the camper was cold, somewhere in the 40’s. After the day warmed up and we were able to better understand what happened to our heat we were able to reassess our current situation. The one battery we had was too low to crank the generator once 8AM came around. I got it jumped off from the truck and our heater started working and the trailer started warming up! Our one dealer supplied deep cycle marine battery wasn’t enough to carry us through the night. With over 20 years of Scouting and tent camping I thought I was prepared for most any camping situation… I have a lot to learn about trailer camping and boon docking.

We had added Grand Teton NP to our list because 10 years ago I had visited the Tetons and Yellowstone while working on a trail building project in Bridger-Teton with the Boy Scouts. I had always wanted to return and spend some time in both parks and share them with JoAnn. I had only gotten a taste of them before but knew she would enjoy seeing them through her camera. Grand Teton NP is the little sister to the pinnacle of National Parks, Yellowstone. It was made a National Park 57 years after Yellowstone and is about 2/3 its size but spectacular in a much different way. You can retrace the footsteps of Ansel Adams, taking photographs from all the popular spots.

Grand Teton National Park

If you have ever had an image of cowboys working the range with the mountains in the background, the Tetons is the perfect setting. With craggy peaks erupting from sagebrush flats with cold clear streams rolling over rocks with elk, bison or pronghorn grazing in the meadows, this is about as perfect a setting as anyone could ask for. Things have not always been so peaceful, geologically speaking this range is rather young, about 10 million years old and is a fault-block range which is formed when the earth’s crust cracks along a fault and part is forced up (mountains) and the other part drops down. Over time the part that dropped down is filled in with sediment aided by glaciers.

When we were there smoke from the western wildfires left a haze over the mountains most days. Our first days was the best for photography but we didn’t know these early shots would be what we have to work with. We did explore many parts of the park taking driving down back roads throughout the mountains. We did get a glimpse of a one-year old bear but not quick enough to capture him on film.

Our stay at Colter Bay was a good place to start working out the kinks of dry camping and gave us a good shake-down of what we need to modify before we try boon docking again. Other than some very cold mornings, no harm… no foul.

Grand Teton Range from Teton Point turnout

Bridger-Teton Scout Trails

One of the things I had hoped to do while in Teton NP was to walk the trails that we had help build during Arrow Corp 5, a joint project between the Boy Scouts, Order of the Arrow and the National Forest. Not sure where the trails were, I stopped by the local National Forest office in Jackson and ended up speaking with a forest ranger named Kesey and she had worked on the project in 2008 and knew exactly where to send me! After making our first attempt to walk the Big Rocks trail, I worked on a section of this trail, conditions were not favorable and we turned around with plans to return tomorrow. After realizing that I had dropped my GoPro camera on the trail we did return the following day with the sole goal to find and recover the camera if it was still there. We spent the afternoon searching and after talking to a couple, they had found it and left it sitting on a log. We rushed to retrieve it and found it exactly were the couple said it would be and after looking at the shots on the camera, we found they left us a selfie message!

Jackson Hole

Jackson is that western town that has four times as many tourists as residents during the season! Filled with shops and restaurants and a town square that has a unique arch and all four corners built out of elk antlers. With the national elk refuge just out of town there is ample supply to keep this landmark fresh and new. The arches are about six foot in diameter and stand over fifteen feet tall.

Lessons learned: We are not setup for dry camping! We have a long way to go before we are ready to head off-grid. -Even after Labor Day you need reservations to get a good spot. Most spots fill 1 year in advance. -And there are still many honest people in the world! The camera and attachments were about $300.