Kitchen Space Set Up

Over the years we have found different ingredients work best for us. I'm sharing them here with you.

Where we are camping determines what we can leave outside of the vehicle. Some places, we have to keep everything in the vehicle or a bear box, others, it's okay to leave some items out. Note that it's not just bears that like to get into food. Racoons and other animals love to as well. So it's best to see what others are doing, and ask the camp host or park ranger.

Regardless, we don't leave food just out, it's always in a bin if it's not in a bear box, or our vehicle.

Shelter:

Tarps or similar items
- We've used tarps for years. Marcus usually sets them up as soon as we get to camp. It's not fun to try and quickly set up a tap as it's raining.
Poles
- I got two poles after we had a campsite with no trees near the picnic table. This made it very difficult to set up the tarp. We had to be really slouched over at the table to be under the tarp, and we couldn't use half the table (it was raining hard during dinnertime.
- The ones we have are the REI Co-op Adjustable Tarp Pole. They work great!
Quick-Set by Clam
- Marcus purchased this late in the summer of 2023. It's been so nice to have a dry mostly bug free space to work. One downside is that on hot days, it gets really hot in there. Another downside is it's hard to put up afterwards, so it must be set up before you set up your stove etc.

Stoves:

We have a Camp Chef Everest 2 burner stove. It can run on the 1lb propane tanks, or if you get a hose attachment, a propane tank. This comes with every trip.
We also have a Camp Chef 4 Burner Portable Flat Top Grill. This used to only come with when we were camping with other people, but now if we have room, we bring it with. With 5 people, it makes meals so much faster! This does take a bit of space, however we were able to get it in the van when we had it. Fitting it in the truck is a little easier.

Coolers:

We have a larger cooler from Camp Chef that we put all of our meat, cheese, milk, and items that we are worried about spoiling
We have a smaller cooler that we use for drinks and produce. We've talked about getting another cooler, so we don't need to have these two in the same cooler.