My wife, two dogs and I took off for almost a month (26 days) from May 18, 2016 to June 11, 2016 to visit some of the National Parks in the west. We'd been talking about doing a trip like this for a while and some recent family events pushed us to make it happen. It took a decent amount of planning as we had really only camped a few times on single night trips. We looked at a map and picked out the National Parks we wanted to see, tried to find "scenic" routes between each waypoint and then began reserving campsites and other lodging along the way. I was also interested in some of the backcountry discovery routes, so we mapped some of that as well and managed to travel on several dirt roads. Accumulating the gear took some time, but we initially were in no rush.
Basic set-up:
We had two coolers, a Yeti to be the "freezer" and a Coleman as our daily fridge/defroster. My wife cooked up a storm before we headed out and froze some tasty dinners as well as made some granola for breakfasts. We mostly ate lunch on the road. We used two Scepter jerry cans to make sure we had plenty of water.
All of our pictures were taken with our phones, Samsung Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6S. For National Parks, we visited Yosemite, Sequoia, Death Valley, Bryce, Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, and North Cascades. My first time to all of these parks.
We picked up our tent a couple of weeks before the trip in Bend, OR on a Saturday. The CVT folks were very helpful with our installing it in their parking lot. We stayed in it that night just outside of Bend in Camp Sherman and everything pretty much went well, even with temps in the upper 30s. We sleep up top and the dogs in their crates in the room below.
Installed!
The tent works in our driveway too! We're ready to go.
I'd like to thank a few folks for helping us get this together and for answering questions:
Departing from Seattle.
Basic set-up:
2008 4Runner V8 Limited 4x4
Tacoma TRD suspension swap w/ FJ Springs for the rear
Cooper AT/3 C-load tires
Frontrunner roof rack
CVT Mt. Cayley RTT
Various recovery devices - TREDs, XJack, Straps & Shackles
Tacoma TRD suspension swap w/ FJ Springs for the rear
Cooper AT/3 C-load tires
Frontrunner roof rack
CVT Mt. Cayley RTT
Various recovery devices - TREDs, XJack, Straps & Shackles
We had two coolers, a Yeti to be the "freezer" and a Coleman as our daily fridge/defroster. My wife cooked up a storm before we headed out and froze some tasty dinners as well as made some granola for breakfasts. We mostly ate lunch on the road. We used two Scepter jerry cans to make sure we had plenty of water.
All of our pictures were taken with our phones, Samsung Galaxy S6 and iPhone 6S. For National Parks, we visited Yosemite, Sequoia, Death Valley, Bryce, Zion, Arches, Canyonlands, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, and North Cascades. My first time to all of these parks.
We picked up our tent a couple of weeks before the trip in Bend, OR on a Saturday. The CVT folks were very helpful with our installing it in their parking lot. We stayed in it that night just outside of Bend in Camp Sherman and everything pretty much went well, even with temps in the upper 30s. We sleep up top and the dogs in their crates in the room below.
Installed!
The tent works in our driveway too! We're ready to go.
I'd like to thank a few folks for helping us get this together and for answering questions:
1. Expedition Portal - I've been reading various posts and reviews for a long time on here
2. toyota-4runner.org - Many helpful posts on here as well and very helpful with a couple of group buys
3. Das Mule - local to me and very helpful!
4. Touratech - again, local to me and very helpful!
5. CVT - very helpful in getting us our tent & installed
2. toyota-4runner.org - Many helpful posts on here as well and very helpful with a couple of group buys
3. Das Mule - local to me and very helpful!
4. Touratech - again, local to me and very helpful!
5. CVT - very helpful in getting us our tent & installed
Departing from Seattle.
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