Walk with us through spontaneous and unapologetic adventures. Join us in budget minded Sprinter DIY successes and failures: Sleeping 4 in a Sprinter 144.
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Waterton Lakes National Park is off the beaten path. It is out of the way and rustic in the most convenient and comfortable ways. The town has something for everyone!
We spent 1 night and 1 day in the park, shortly after a large fire ravaged the forest and town. Even if unable to enjoy the trails, there is plenty of reason to go and enjoy! Below is a list of what we did and we would gladly do it all again!
Townsite Campground is a mountain paradise for weary parents and kids alike. Green grass and huge campsites are only the beginning. Hot showers, dish washing stations, common kitchen shelters, flush toilets, and lake views are among the amenities. A short stroll takes you to restaurants, boat docks, and shops.
2. Get your National Park Passport Cancellation.
A temporary visitor’s center was set up in the post office when we were there. Hiking and mountain biking trails were closed. The locals and park employees love of and concern for the park and town is obvious. We respected the trail closures and didn’t feel like we missed a beat!
Trust me, you won’t be disappointed! This isn’t your average hot dog restaurant.
5. Picnic by the lake.
Waterton Lakes National Park
6. Check out the bike path.
It winds around the campground, by the lake, through a meadow, and along a river. My 5 year old and 3 year old bike better than they walk so we love a good bike path! Thank you Prevelo kids bikes!
The bike ride is steep on the way up and quick on the way down. The views are amazing!
9. Watch wildlife.
The park rangers seemed to know every bear and they pointed us towards a mother and two young cubs to watch from a distance. The bears didn’t mind, which was good since we were on our bikes.
The signs warn of aggressive deer. Luckily, we didn’t have a problem.
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10. Plan your next trip to Waterton Lakes National Park.
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It is spring in Utah when the rivers are running high, the sun is shining, and the roads are full of Colorado license plates. There is no better way to celebrate the end of ski resort employment than to leave the high country in favor of the red rocks of Utah.
I started this tradition prior to meeting CD and we continued it together every May until we moved from Colorado. Utah has so much to offer that I don’t even know where to begin. While the order is irrelevant, I will start southwest, go roughly northeast but stay south of I-70 and then end southeast near the four corners.
Zion National Park is my favorite, hands down. We have been there over and over. We have hiked end to end, climbed its peaks, and waded through its slot canyons. Its red rock is made more brilliant by the Virgin river and green trees. The proximity to the town of Springdale with its cold drinks and hot breakfast doesn’t hurt either.
The Desert Pearl, in Springdale. If you are looking for a break from camping, this place is unlikely to disappoint.
Angel’s Landing is its most well known hike. It starts with switchbacks called Walter’s Wiggles. It is well known that I love switch backs for the exercise alone. There is no better way to start the day.
It isn’t until after the switchbacks that this hike really separates itself from the rest. Angel’s landing is no joke in terms of exposure and drop offs.
The trail narrows to one way. There is a chain link railing. You are exposed to the depths of the valley floor, more so in some places than in others.
My first time up Angel’s Landing was with my brother. Making it to the top was a rush. Making it back down alive was even better. The next time was with CD. The rush was not as great but the feeling of relief after was even greater. The third time was with CD again. The steps felt more narrow and the valley floor seemed a bit further than before. With that, I decided that three times up Angel’s Landing is likely enough for me.
We looked for other routes with bigger and better views. Observation Point hit the mark. It is a more physically challenging and longer hike. It climbs 2100 feet and rises 700 feet above Angel’s Landing.
Zion, UtahAngel’s Landing
Zion, Backcountry
Back country sites are accessible from the main entrance. Below is the view from our camp site along the West Rim Trail. It is worth noting that we started the hike with a crowd headed to Angel’s Landing. As soon as we turned away from that route, we were on our own. It was super windy and we were surrounded by dead trees. We woke up in the morning to distance runners coming down the rim trail.
Zion, Kolob Canyon
Kolob Canyon is Zion’s less known North entrance. It offers day hikes and backpacking trips with few other people around. Our back country site was in an old river bottom. Much of the hiking was in loose sand. Snakes loved it.
If you have seen the wide open spaces of Zion and are ready for a change, the Narrows may be your next stop. Do your research. Be informed. Watch the weather. These slot canyons are beautiful and it is good to pay attention if you plan to do much exploring. CD met a friend there for his fortieth birthday and they didn’t end up finishing their chosen route because of flash floods.
From Zion, you can get to Bryce Canyon in a short day. It is higher and cooler. This is great in the hot months and not as great in the early spring. It is smaller and more compact. The Hoo-doos are unique and impressive. I tend to pass through Bryce westbound to Zion or eastbound to Capital Reef but CD is a fan of the views at sunrise. He also has told me good things about a coin operated shower at the general store.
Apparently, he has a great memory of enjoying a post-hike beer from the general store while sitting on the lodge porch at sunset after a hot shower.
I rarely hear people talk about Capital Reef but we have found it to offer great hiking, impressive rock formations, and amazing views. I don’t recommend hiking there if you are hoping to meet people and chit chat over hand fulls of trail mix. The trails are largely empty.
At this point it is worth mentioning the San Rafeal Swell. It offers slot canyons with campsites tucked away on BLM land. My advice: Go there, if you have time. Bring your own shade. Do what I did and go with someone that has been there before – hopefully someone proficient at navigating slot canyons. Goblin Valley State Park is near by and may be a better choice if it is your first time in the area.
The price was right but shade was sparse. This was our route to enter the slot canyon.
Canyonlands is easier to access from Moab than from the Southwest. The views are endless. The hiking is interesting and fun. Regions of the park have names like Needles, Island to Sky, and The Maze. Mountain biking the White Rim Road loop is popular and it is on my to-do list for sure. We have not camped in the back country but we have camped just outside the park and there are beautiful starry skies.
Arches is a straight shot from I-70 and is complimented by it’s close relationship with Moab. The Colorado River provides contrast to the red rock backdrop. The La Salle mountains rise up with snowy peaks and provide further contrast and depth to the scenery.
Moab is like the old west meeting a trendy art gallery. The restaurants and shops are full of personality and there are tour companies to suite everyone’s needs. You can sign up for 4 x 4 tours, mountain biking, hiking, river rafting, paddle boarding, horse back riding, and pretty much anything else you can imagine.
While I cannot speak to the tour companies, I can attest to the hiking and camping. Hikes range from easy to more difficult. Arches is typically one of the more crowded Utah parks but for good reasons. Campsites are dotted along the river banks and range from rustic and isolated to developed and popular. I recommend them all!
Just a bit East and on BLM land, you will find Castleton.
Castleton Tower from above the parking lot
Pretty much everyone was there to climb. CD climbed with friends while I hiked and then read a book at the campsite. It was great. Everyone was happy.
Hiking up to start the climb. It looked taller in person. This is where I turned around and CD went upOur tent – in the shade!
If you don’t climb, it is still beautiful to see but you will likely enjoy camping somewhere else more than camping here. This was packed with climbers and surrounded by wide open desert.
Dropping down to the four corners, you can hop into Mesa Verde. While the cliff dwellings are interesting and worth seeing, you may find a bit of crowd. My favorite feature is its proximity to Durango. Check out the Silverton Narrow Gauge railway and head North to Ouray or East towards Pagosa Springs on your way out of town.
These petroglyphs are at Mesa Verde, Utah. You can see similar markings along I-70 just West of 191.
I could keep going on and on about Utah but will stop myself here for now. Utah is dense with natural wonders. I recommend going there and seeing it first hand.
Red rock dust from ten years ago still stains my hiking boots. Seeing it makes me smile.
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Here are the top three signs that life while traveling in a van with kids has gotten out of hand.
You endorse a Burger King vs McDonald’s french fry taste test.
Yikes!
2. You stop to buy fly strips. Yes, they still make fly strips and, yes, we needed them in the van.
3. You have a can of easy cheese in your purse.
Embarrassing as it may be, this was actually one day in our life. I can’t remember what got us to this point but I imagine it was a hot day and we drove quite a few miles. I was obviously delirious.
The day ended with a relaxing dinner at our campsite.
THEN … We woke up to this and everything was okay. As the kids would say: We were “livin’ the life”!
We live in the Willamette Valley and enjoy camping in Oregon.
The coastal range is to the East and the Cascades to the West. It rains; it is wet. Lichen and fungi are prolific.
CD and I met in the high mountains of Colorado. The high desert is a comfortable climate for us. With that being said, we both enjoy the Willamette Valley. It is not typically until I leave the valley that I realize how much more comfortable I am with brown pine needles than with banana slugs and trees chocked by lichen.
Birthday Weekend Camping: Oregon
It was CD’s birthday weekend. We had been home from our summer trip for less than a month. Our Oregon to Oregon odometer reading for the summer was 8528 miles and our trip timer reading was 190 hours and 55 minutes. Even with just having returned home, we missed the Sprinter life. The kids and I suggested an overnight camping trip for CD’s birthday. It needed to be a quick 1 night get-away.
We all agreed to drive East towards Sisters. CD had eyed up a few places and chose Suttle Lake mostly because we were short on time. It wasn’t as far as Sisters or Bend but was still on the dry side of the pass. There were several National Forest campgrounds and had easy access from the highway. Although he is not a fisherman, CD was kind enough to suggest that the kids and I bring our fishing poles and try our luck. We were sold.
If you have even driven Highway 20 from I-5 to Sisters, you may remember that there is a tipping point were the lichen stops and the high desert begins. I can’t tell you at exactly which mile marker this happens. This time, I didn’t think much of it until we pulled in to the campground. The ground and the air was dry.
The campgrounds were only a few miles from the highway. We drove through Blue Bay campground. It was nice but we kept going and settled on Link Creek.
Link Creek Campground
There were plenty of sites available. We chose a central site so that the kids could fish from the dock and we could see them from the van. There was a dirt boat launch, fish cleaning stations, and pit toilets. The sites were plenty large and it was generally clean.
It was CD’s birthday so he was calling the shots. CD was happy to sit on the picnic table, strum his guitar, and enjoy the air. The view wasn’t anything spectacular.
Sprinter DIY. #vanlifeSprinter DIY. #vanlife
I set up the kids fishing poles and started dinner. There were a few boats on the lake. From where we stood, it was shallow and not very inviting for swimming. It may be noted, however, that I was born and raised in Michigan and have high fresh water standards.
The Boats, Oregon Camping at Suttle Lake
In any case, it wasn’t long before we heard a motor revving. Some sort of race boat with two exhaust pipes sticking up launched at the adjacent dock and was driving around the lake. This lake isn’t huge, by the way. The boat would speed around the lake two or three times, then idle for a bit. When it was driving it was so loud that we could barely talk to each other. I am sure other campers were irritated but I was more amazed, interested, and surprised. The whole thing went on for an hour or so and then they loaded the boat on the trailer and drove away.
The second most interesting thing we saw was a good sized cabin cruiser. It was anchored off shore a bit. Again, this is not a huge lake. I assumed they would sleep there but rather than doing so, they pulled into the dock at the campground and slept in a tent.
I guess people really love boating on this lake. Based on our lack of success fishing and the fishing equipment on their boat, it occurred to me that you may need a boat to get to the fish.
Several campers had kayaks pulled up on shore and easily accessed by walking paths from their campsites. This seemed like a nice idea to me.
The Great Awning Experiment
By the time the kids and I got back, CD was fully immersed in his much anticipated awning experiment. Years ago he made an awning for our minivan. He had been wanting to try it out on the Sprinter. Rain was expected over night and I guess he decided this was his chance.
Here it is. Don’t trip over the guylines. Sprinter DIY. Oregon camping oregon camping
Well, he did it. It was set up and surprisingly solid. I was curious about the sag in the middle but it sounded like he had a plan. The guylines were a bit of a hazard but I was willing to humor him and give the thing a try. It was his birthday after all.
He told me to walk around the van to see how he secured the awning.
This is what I found:
oregon camping
He seemed to know it was ridiculous and not any sort of ground breaking invention. Since we couldn’t open the driver’s side door, it was barely even a short term solution but he was so happy.
HB woke up around dawn. We found a bridge that we had failed to see the night before. There were fish rising and jumping all over the place. We tried every fishing trick I knew but they just didn’t bite. We watched the sun come up, saw trail runners and walked some of the trail. It may be worth mentioning that you can see and hear highway 20 while standing on the shore but we didn’t notice this from our campsite.
Shortly after CD and Grace woke up, the skies opened up. The awning held. We ate oatmeal in the van and broke camp.
The Suttle Lodge
CD was curious about the Suttle Lake Lodge. It was near Highway 20 and not far off the road. We walked into the main lodge and were greeted by a crowded room of happy lodge guests. There was shelf after shelf of board games. The dining area was community style with big long tables next to sofas and coffee tables. Dogs were welcome and everyone was smiling. Big windows and glass doors offered a lake view. A large patio and lawn were beyond. There were docks with row boats and fishing boats for rent.
I am quite sure that CD didn’t intend to spend time or money here but it was just too tempting. I ordered fresh squeezed orange juice, grapefruit juice, and an egg sandwich with aged cheddar.
We already had breakfast at camp but the opportunity to drink fresh squeezed juice while playing board games by a hot fire with tons of happy people just seemed like the right thing to do. The kitchen was slow but for good reason. The place was packed and they were obviously making every order one by one. We didn’t mind the wait.
In Summary,Oregon Camping Review:
Would I camp at Suttle Lake again? Probably not.
What would I do differently if camped there again? Walk, boat, or bike to breakfast at the Suttle Lake Lodge. Spend time playing corn hole and drinking fresh juice. I may consider happy hour at the lodge too. I may consider just staying at the lodge if I need an easy to get to lodging location for a few people that like that kind of thing.
Rambling Footsteps 