10 Things I Learned

 I had camped.  I had camped in a few different situations.  I had never camped in an area with bears.  Being the organized anxious planner I am, I was pretty unprepared.   I learned a lot.

1.  You cannot do dishes at your campsite.  It makes sense, you don't want food odors attracting bears, but I never considered dish water.  The campground bathrooms had a tiny little community dish washing room (we are talking a smidgen larger than a phone booth here).  No hot water.  That really threw me for a loop.  Cold water washing- I rewashed everything when I got home of course.

2.  You cannot store clean dishes/ water bottles/ ANYTHING related to meal prep or cooking at your site.  This threw me for a giant loop too..... Basically everything that wasn't the tent or sleeping bags had to be stored in the car.  My tidy organized personality was a little worked up.  This meant I had to keep the dishes done all the time because who wants to drive around all day with dirty dishes in their car?  No one.

3.  No hot water AT ALL.  I knew the campground wouldn't have showers, but the bathroom sinks didn't even run warm water....... wash your face with brisk cold water why don't ya?

4.  The bear safe storage boxes are shared.  I was relieved to find this out because before we went I had read that some sites had boxes and others didn't.  The boxes are actually meant to be shared by three, four or five sites.  We had three equal distanced boxes from our site and they were almost always empty.  We kept our little portable gas grill in the bear box because I didn't want to keep the grill in our car while we were sightseeing all day.

5.  You need to take extra trash bags.  I took one for each day, it wasn't enough because you need to keep your trash with you.  DUH.  I sure as heck didn't want to drive around with egg shells and coffee grounds.  Luckily we had a gas station bag and some ice bags so we could throw out smaller bags of trash before we went sightseeing. 

6.  Having to take all of your food with you is actually very convenient.  Driving all day exploring the park there were a million picnic areas that we could pull off and enjoy.  Since we had to take everything with us anyways it was nice not to need to 'pack' lunches.  We just made lunch wherever we pulled off.

7.  There is no cell service in the campground.  I kid you not, as soon as we made it to the registration building on the way out of the campground we would get a signal.  No data to speak of though.  Up near Mammoth Hot Springs I did notice 3G briefly.  Just plan on being disconnected.   Around the larger attractions there must have been decent service because I noticed SO many older folks yelling into their phones.  Annoying.  

8.  Having the car compartments empty is a HUGE help.  Rarely empty, my two storage bins in the back of my car saved my sanity.  I kept fire starting/big spray/ clean up things in one side.....

.... In the other I kept toothbrushes/ toothpaste/ deodorant/ sunscreen/ pain reliever.  Totally genius.  It worked out great.

9.  The general stores have eateries so you can have something to eat that doesn't require a crap ton of work.... and they sell a really good selection of beer and wine.  Also  if you remember nothing else I tell you...

**  THE HUCKLEBERRY ICE CREAM SANDWICHES ARE AMAZING**

Get five one!

10.  There is wildlife up in the campground.  Not just chipmunks and squirrels.  When we first arrived and were racing to put up the tent in between rain clouds, Nate came over and said, "Mom!  There is poop over there!"  I followed him and sure enough animal poop.... kinda large poop... then I looked up and the five trees all around our tent had claw marks.  The tree closest to the poop had what looked to be fresh claw marks.   I was going to pretend that an idiot teenager put them there to scare people (totally terrified was I), but then campground neighbors on their second or third trips said they were bear marks.... bear poop..... SIX FEET from where we had put up out tent.  Now I've been home and googled bear poop, and it varies, I'm going to continue in my denial of the presence of bears. Ignorance is bliss.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip.  

I'd definitely recommend staying in the park.  

 It's inexpensive, and we got to see so much more than if we had stayed outside the park. 

 And now if you do go you'll be warned about the dishes and the ice cream sandwiches.  

You're welcome.