Okay, here we go--the things you need to actually sleep in comfort! I posted earlier about what equipment we use to cook (and some recipes and menu plans!) but today I'm going to do my best to give a quick rundown of the actual tent and sleeping bag part of it.
When we were very first married, we bought a green 4-man Coleman tent. If you are new to camping, know that the "4-man" part means "if you are desperate in a blizzard you can wedge four people inside and be grateful for the body heat." In reality, you can fit 2 people + their gear inside comfortably. (Note: this is car camping, not backpacking, which has a whole different set of rules & gear...Neil is getting super into backpacking so I'm sure there will be posts about that in the future.)
Anyway, we used that green Coleman tent until we graduated from BYU, at which point our graduation gift to ourselves was this puppy:
Anyway, we used that green Coleman tent until we graduated from BYU, at which point our graduation gift to ourselves was this puppy:
...which we used until Neil finished his PhD when we splashed out on this REI beauty:
2) Get a rain fly that comes down to the ground. Again, this is something we learned over time, so you can see this progression in our tents! If you are ONLY doing desert camping you might be okay with the blue rain fly on our second tent, but I'll tell you this: I have been on zero camping trips where at some point we did not get absolutely pounded by rain, and we just plan for at least one monster storm per day when we are camping in Yellowstone, Glacier, Smokies, Tetons, etc. We have stayed dry camping in Utah but that's basically it. (When Isaac was 11 months old, we went on an 8-night trip through Ohio and New York where we came back to our tent one night to find it literally floating and a duck calmly paddling around the front door.)
Okay, here are my most important tips about buying a tent:
1) Look for bathtub construction. This means that the bottom of the tent sort of wraps up the sides a bit so you don't have a seam at ground level where the sides of the tent meet the bottom. This REALLY helps keep rain out. If you look at the pictures, you'll see that the green tent and the orange tent have bathtub construction. The blue tent does not and man, have we regretted that more than once.2) Get a rain fly that comes down to the ground. Again, this is something we learned over time, so you can see this progression in our tents! If you are ONLY doing desert camping you might be okay with the blue rain fly on our second tent, but I'll tell you this: I have been on zero camping trips where at some point we did not get absolutely pounded by rain, and we just plan for at least one monster storm per day when we are camping in Yellowstone, Glacier, Smokies, Tetons, etc. We have stayed dry camping in Utah but that's basically it. (When Isaac was 11 months old, we went on an 8-night trip through Ohio and New York where we came back to our tent one night to find it literally floating and a duck calmly paddling around the front door.)
3) Buy bigger than the number of people sleeping in your tent. My rule of thumb is people sleeping there +2.
4) And this is a luxurity not a necessity but MAN will it make a difference--if you can, get a tent that includes a vestibule entrance. This basically gives you a place that is NOT the interior of the tent to do things like put on your shoes/pile gear that you don't need in the tent but you'd like it to be accessible.
So recap: our current tents are a Coleman 4-man (the girls sleep in this) and the REI Kingdom 8-man with footprint and vestibule.
Going back to the torrential downpours every day in the mountains--this thing has saved us SO many times. We have this exact one (purchased in 2015) and it is still going strong with zero signs of wear and tear. We treated it with some waterproofing spray (similar here) before our first use and it's held up to some truly horrendous storms. What you want to look for: big enough to fully cover a picnic table + give you room to walk around and cook, zippered sides that will keep out bugs, tall enough that you can stand up easily (ours is 8'4" at the center and we hang a lantern from the interior peak and use the struts along the sides to dry out towels or clothes), and a sturdy carrying case so you aren't lugging around poles, awnings, and stakes.
4) And this is a luxurity not a necessity but MAN will it make a difference--if you can, get a tent that includes a vestibule entrance. This basically gives you a place that is NOT the interior of the tent to do things like put on your shoes/pile gear that you don't need in the tent but you'd like it to be accessible.
So recap: our current tents are a Coleman 4-man (the girls sleep in this) and the REI Kingdom 8-man with footprint and vestibule.
Next: our other main piece of equipment is a shelter to go over & around the picnic table.
Going back to the torrential downpours every day in the mountains--this thing has saved us SO many times. We have this exact one (purchased in 2015) and it is still going strong with zero signs of wear and tear. We treated it with some waterproofing spray (similar here) before our first use and it's held up to some truly horrendous storms. What you want to look for: big enough to fully cover a picnic table + give you room to walk around and cook, zippered sides that will keep out bugs, tall enough that you can stand up easily (ours is 8'4" at the center and we hang a lantern from the interior peak and use the struts along the sides to dry out towels or clothes), and a sturdy carrying case so you aren't lugging around poles, awnings, and stakes.
Last but not least, what are you actually going to sleep on?
After looooots of trial and error we have finally settled on air mattresses. As children Neil and I had very different experiences: they slept on 4-inch thick foam pads (bulky but so comfy!) and we slept on super hi-tech featherlight pads that weighed like 2 oz, packed down into nothing, and felt like nothing. ;-)
Our compromise as adults--at least for car camping--is the air mattresses. For our most recent trip we used 3 queens and one twin.
For sleeping bags--oh gosh we've got a variety there. Neil and I originally purchased these giant square-bottomed sleeping bags because I hated mummy bags so much as a kid!
Turns out mummy bags are the best. So...back to the mummy bags we went after a few years. Right now Neil and I both have North Face sleeping bags and my best advice is to spend a little extra money to get bags that really fit you--Neil has a men's extra-tall bag (he's 6'5") and I have a women's bag which is cut wider at the hips and narrower at the shoulders than a men's bag. Love them so much!!
Our kids have a range of bags since we've bought different ones at different times, but we've found that our kids need a child-sized bag until they're about 8 and then it's best to switch over to a smaller adult bag.
Our kids have a range of bags since we've bought different ones at different times, but we've found that our kids need a child-sized bag until they're about 8 and then it's best to switch over to a smaller adult bag.
1) Think about what you use at home to make life easier and how you can replicate that camping. For instance, for many many years we always camped with a pack and play--we never put a toddler into a sleeping bag on a pad until that toddler was sleeping in a regular bed at home. We also bought a portable booster chair that went on many many many trips with us (there's a Yellowstone trip where baby Juliet is strapped into it sitting on a car because there was literally nowhere else for her to sit!).
2) Pull-ups on young potty-trained kids in sleeping bags. You will thank me later.
3) Our kids sleep with sound machines at home so we make sure to have at least one device (phone or tablet) charged at night that can play white noise (and we always have it plugged into a backup battery!).
4) When our kids were much younger we got our pediatrician's go-ahead to give them melatonin gummies when camping. Now we don't worry about our regular bedtimes and just try to wear them out during the day so that the second they hit their sleeping bag they're out. (Basically we don't try for bed until it's dark, which man, that was a stretch for me in Glacier when the sun was still bright at 9:30 PM!)
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