It has been about 10 months since we went camping. We have never gone that long between trips. This abnormal behavior was due to Joyce breaking her ankle in 3 places back in September of 2020.
Joyce’s ankle is healed and it was time to renew our habit of “excellent camping adventures.” Since the camper has been sitting for nearly a year, I decided a short trip of around 5 hours each way for 5 days was a good starting point.
But there was one problem: last year’s problem of full campgrounds has extended and even gotten worse in 2021. To compound this, we wanted to camp the week leading up to the 4th of July weekend. What a mess!
COVID and Crowded Campgrounds
We normally, or rather almost never, stay in campgrounds that require reservations. If reservations are required, then the campground is probably crowded and noisy. Usually we camp where no one wants to camp, such as desert campgrounds where the daily average temperature is above 110F; or we camp in dispersed areas where camping is allowed by the administrative agency.
With the advent of the Internet, and especially social media, even the dispersed areas are getting crowded. Although there are methods to find remote, secluded camping spots that will be the topic of a future post.
How to Judge if Dispersed Areas will be Crowded
My method is to check how crowded campgrounds that accept reservations are. To my chagrin, I found nearly every campground where the weather was nice to be full. And by full, I mean almost every single site subject to reservations is booked every single day until after Labor Day — yep, the dispersed areas will be overflowing with campers too.
Most of the campgrounds in the Sierra Nevada that accept reservations look like this all summer long.
Even if we could make a reservation, we wouldn’t want to join the hordes.
So we headed to Lake Mead. The water level is low and it was forecast to have daily highs between 109F and 116F. There are other places, closer to our home, we could have gone, but I wanted to do at least 500 miles round-trip to ensure the camper was in tip-top shape, which it was. Just incase the campgrounds at Lake Mead would get too busy with boaters and water-sport people over the 4th of July weekend we left early Saturday morning.
It Wasn’t That Hot
The old saying, “it is dry heat” applied. Add some shade and things can be rather pleasant. We even invited some of Joyce’s childhood friends to come over for dinner and drinks Thursday night. Everyone had a great time.
It was another excellent camping adventure for us.