Have You Been Camping in a Prius Two?

Last weekend I went camping in my friend's brand new Toyota Prius Two car. We had never heard of it until he told me that he had read about it on a Prius Two car blog. We flattened the back seats and put a twin size inflatable mattress. The car battery allowed us to automatically have the car turn on the heat regularly all night long since it was 57 degrees last Saturday night. It was really fun. And the car was so quiet that we weren't bothered by the other loud campers in the nature preserve. I am looking forward to going camping again. Have you ever heard of this type of camping? Would you try it?

 

Apparently this kind of camping is becoming popular - staying in the car. There are a few sites on the net that are dedicated to the same. I have camped in my van once - different, and one that I wouldn't do often. But you know...having a cot in the van wasn't a bad idea; I certainly slept well.

Some interesting sites among others....

How to turn you car into a camper - Intelligent Travel

How to live in your car: 16 steps [with pictures] wikiHow

 

I'm sorry but, I would never pull up in a prius with my native crew waiting to go camping. I can hear them talking sh*t. But hey, to each his own. It's a different day and age. I realize that. But from my history and the people I roll with, never would I do that.

 

True - I'm a die hard tenter and have nine tents to prove that.

 

I think that this might be something that is just coming back into style again. The price of gas, even though it did drop some, has just gotten too high for many families to go camping with their RV's anymore, and they have to look for cheaper ways to still get out there and have fun. Mini-vans are pretty popular, and not too bad on gas, although they do not have much ground clearance for going over any bad roads.

Years ago , when I was growing up, all we had (in our family) was cars, and that was what most people who lived in town drove; so that was what my folks went camping with. We had a 1953 Buick Special, and my Grandpa Bailey, who always went along, had a '51 Ford. Mom made fried chicken and potato salad, and packed up everything that she needed to cook over the campfire, and we had all of the sleeping bags and air mattresses piled into the back seat, which was also where I rode for the trip.

You would not even believe the roads that we went over to get to those backwoods lakes! They were dirt roads, two little trails for the wheels, and grass growing a couple feet tall in between. Sometimes, they were muddy, and we had to drive completely off of the road to avoid being bogged down and stuck in one of the huge mud puddles. Or maybe, a tree had fallen across the road; so my dad and grandpa had to hack the tree up with an axe so we could get through.

I am pretty sure that NO Prius would ever go where those old cars went to, and no Prius owner would even consider driving that expensive car out on those roads! It is a good thing that most of the camp grounds have nice paved roads to get out to the camping area nowadays.

Here is a picture of Spruce Lake, in North Idaho. My son and grandsons hiked up there on Father's Day. I don't think you could get a Prius up here, and probably not even my folks old '53 Buick.

 

We actually went camping in our car this past Friday night. Where we were at there wasn't much room to pitch a tent so the car was the only real option. It was a okay experience and I would definitely do it again. We will be more prepared next time. We did camp out in the car a few years ago in December. The temps were well below zero but we had each other to keep warm. At the time it wasn't a whole lot of fun but we have laughed and talked about it many times since there. It was an experience but not sure I would want to repeat that one.

 

The worst-ever camping trip that I remember was done in a tiny 1963 Rambler American. If you do not remember these, they were maybe the first economy car, and back in the day when gas was only 17 cents a gallon to begin with. This was not actually a camping trip. My husband and I had only been married a year or two, so we were both in our early twenties (probably a good thing). It was fall, and we were going hunting. He had the deer rifle and I had my little .22 single shot rifle for hunting grouse.

We were on a scraggly forest service trail way back (hours) into the woods, and we came to a good-sized creek in the road. Naturally, he was sure that we could get that little car to drive through the creek, and somehow, we actually made it across, and on up the hill on the other side. Not so easy that evening when we came back down again, and were tired and heading home. Of course, the car was stuck, totally bogged down, in the middle of Grouse Creek. We tried to jack it up and push it off of the jack to get it far enough out to drive. That didn't work. Next, we tried using a large dead branch that was laying on the ground and using that as a fulcrum to push the car ahead.

That didn't work either. After a couple hours of this, we were soaked to the skin, cold, and tired. And a long, long ways from civilization of any kind. We made a small campfire, ate whatever food we had left, dried the clothes as best as we could, and slept in the car over night. The next morning, we were seriously starving; but had renewed our energy, and somehow, we got that little car pushed far enough out of the creek that he could drive it out of the other side.

Getting back home and taking a hot shower was such a wonderful thing! However, I am not sure if we did that before or after we had something to eat. And neither one of us brought up the idea of camping for a long time after that.

Ours looked like this, except it was white.

 

There was just two of us and we were sleeping in a older Toyota Corolla. The front seats lay right back so it was quite comfy. I would do it again. We actually slept quite well.

 

I like sleeping on my stomach too so it does make it difficult to sleep in a car but every once in awhile is okay.