July 18, 2024
I started car camping a few years ago because I wanted to do more astrophotography and was too old to drive all night! Over the last few years, I figured out my car camping essentials, and now I am here to share what I learned through trial and error. My pain is your gain. Keep reading to get started!
I wanted to go to more remote places like the local mountains, national parks, and the coast to do astrophotograpy, sometimes, you’re waiting half the night to shoot the Milky Way or possible Aurora Borealis sightings. You get tired AF, and nothing is around you. Car camping is easy!After a few years of car camping, I have learned what to do, what not to do, what to bring, etc. Let me share some basic things you need to know.
My definition of car camping is sleeping in my car. I do not attach a tent to the roof of my car, I don’t attach a tent to the back of my car. I literally put the seats down and sleep in my car. It makes it much easier to go.
I’ll go over some safety things, what I bring, and my biggest advice, which would be to go minimal. So let’s get started.
Try to camp with friends or family if you can. Sometimes, that does not work, so I will go on my own as well.
I like to go early to where I will be shooting, scope out a good place to set up and get my bed set up so I can just crash as soon as I’m done.
There are different things you can do. You can carry knives, firearms, bear spray, or whatever your comfort level is. I always have something on me that will help protect me when I’m in remote places. I’m more worried about the animals and less concerned about the people, but either could be an issue.
Make sure you tell somebody, or even a couple of people, where you’re going and what your plan is. Check-in with them. This is very, very important. You want to make sure that if something happens and you are not in cell phone reception, someone will look for you if you don’t show up at home.
If you have a satellite phone, or a Garmin in-reach bring those because you never know what could happen.
Other things to consider
I personally have a Subaru forester, and it works great. Since we already had the Subaru, I didn’t have to buy a specific vehicle for car camping. A friend’s husband liked hiking early in the morning, so he built a platform for his Subaru and would sleep there before hikes. I actually got the idea from her. I did some research and got started.
Some newer cars can kill the battery; sometimes, leaving the key in the vehicle overnight can drain the battery. So, depending on what car you have, you should do some research before you start sleeping in your car with your key fob. My 2014 Subaru is older, and I don’t have an issue. My daughter has a newer 2022 Subaru, and it has an option where you can put it to sleep so it doesn’t drain the battery while you are camping in the car.
First I remove all the headrest, put down the backseats, then I lay a couple blankets down where my mattress is going to lay (Extra cushion and helps me stay warm). I use a thin air mattress made for a cot that self-inflates, then add a sleeping bag, some blankets, a pillow and I’m all set up.
I do have a tall cooler that I put between the backseat and the front seat where my head goes. There isn’t a ton of room in the Subaru, so I need that extra space between the backseat and the front seat for my head. I like my head to be up and propped up more, so I will put blankets or my bag of clothes on top of my cooler to make it slightly taller. Then my air mattress sits on top of that, and I’m good to go.
I have a small bin that I will use to store my tools and supplies. It also works as a side table for my phone, watch, or whatever else I need to put on while sleeping.
I’ll have a list of things that I suggest for a quick overnight sleep in my car when doing photography. It’s super basic. I might go into more details with another blog, which will be about car camping on a road trip, but for now, I’m going to keep it simple.
Keep it simple when you are car camping. I’ll bring a jet bowl so I can boil water, and I’ll have coffee from https://www.wildlandcoffee.co/. I will sometimes bring a one-burner stove, depending on food preparations and what we’re doing for meals while we’re out. I mostly bring things that are easy to eat, vegetables to snack on, hard-boiled eggs, beef jerky, canned fish, snacks… I’m all about making it easy.
I started car camping a few years ago because I wanted to do more astrophotography and was too old to drive all night! Over the last few years, I figured out my car camping essentials, and now I am here to share what I learned through trial and error. My pain is your gain. Keep reading to get started!
I wanted to go to more remote places like the local mountains, national parks, and the coast to do astrophotograpy, sometimes, you’re waiting half the night to shoot the Milky Way or possible Aurora Borealis sightings. You get tired AF, and nothing is around you. Car camping is easy!After a few years of car camping, I have learned what to do, what not to do, what to bring, etc. Let me share some basic things you need to know.
My definition of car camping is sleeping in my car. I do not attach a tent to the roof of my car, I don’t attach a tent to the back of my car. I literally put the seats down and sleep in my car. It makes it much easier to go.
I’ll go over some safety things, what I bring, and my biggest advice, which would be to go minimal. So let’s get started.
Try to camp with friends or family if you can. Sometimes, that does not work, so I will go on my own as well.
I like to go early to where I will be shooting, scope out a good place to set up and get my bed set up so I can just crash as soon as I’m done.
There are different things you can do. You can carry knives, firearms, bear spray, or whatever your comfort level is. I always have something on me that will help protect me when I’m in remote places. I’m more worried about the animals and less concerned about the people, but either could be an issue.
Make sure you tell somebody, or even a couple of people, where you’re going and what your plan is. Check-in with them. This is very, very important. You want to make sure that if something happens and you are not in cell phone reception, someone will look for you if you don’t show up at home.
If you have a satellite phone, or a Garmin in-reach bring those because you never know what could happen.
Other things to consider
I personally have a Subaru forester, and it works great. Since we already had the Subaru, I didn’t have to buy a specific vehicle for car camping. A friend’s husband liked hiking early in the morning, so he built a platform for his Subaru and would sleep there before hikes. I actually got the idea from her. I did some research and got started.
Some newer cars can kill the battery; sometimes, leaving the key in the vehicle overnight can drain the battery. So, depending on what car you have, you should do some research before you start sleeping in your car with your key fob. My 2014 Subaru is older, and I don’t have an issue. My daughter has a newer 2022 Subaru, and it has an option where you can put it to sleep so it doesn’t drain the battery while you are camping in the car.
First I remove all the headrest, put down the backseats, then I lay a couple blankets down where my mattress is going to lay (Extra cushion and helps me stay warm). I use a thin air mattress made for a cot that self-inflates, then add a sleeping bag, some blankets, a pillow and I’m all set up.
I do have a tall cooler that I put between the backseat and the front seat where my head goes. There isn’t a ton of room in the Subaru, so I need that extra space between the backseat and the front seat for my head. I like my head to be up and propped up more, so I will put blankets or my bag of clothes on top of my cooler to make it slightly taller. Then my air mattress sits on top of that, and I’m good to go.
I have a small bin that I will use to store my tools and supplies. It also works as a side table for my phone, watch, or whatever else I need to put on while sleeping.
I’ll have a list of things that I suggest for a quick overnight sleep in my car when doing photography. It’s super basic. I might go into more details with another blog, which will be about car camping on a road trip, but for now, I’m going to keep it simple.
Keep it simple when you are car camping. I’ll bring a jet bowl so I can boil water, and I’ll have coffee from https://www.wildlandcoffee.co/. I will sometimes bring a one-burner stove, depending on food preparations and what we’re doing for meals while we’re out. I mostly bring things that are easy to eat, vegetables to snack on, hard-boiled eggs, beef jerky, canned fish, snacks… I’m all about making it easy.
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