Hello friends and family.. I’m going to finally hop on the train and try keeping this travelogue updated regularly! Let’s time travel back to Summer of 2016 and talk about my first real boondocking trip to the forest outside of Mt. Rainier National Park.
Somehow, I convinced even my parents and little brother to come on this quick, 1-2 night adventure in the RV. We had originally planned to stay at a campground within the park, but all of the campgrounds were full. As a last ditch effort, we asked the camp host in the last area we tried, and he told us about some dispersed camping areas nearby… aka boondocking!
I had never been boondocking in the RV at that point. I had never even really camped in it, besides the breakdown on the first trip.
I had also done a lot of work to it since landing in Washington, including wiring my new solar battery setup into the main electrical system after my original battery exploded… so this was a bit of a nerve-wracking test run that we were doing.
After the few hours of driving there and driving around, my mom and I were exhausted. She wanted to turn around. But I insisted we push forward and we ended up finding an epic area just outside of the park where there were quite a few other boondockers but plenty of room for quiet. You can see Trixi enjoying the pad of land above.
Eventually, we were able to get cell service and let my stepdad and little brother know where to find us. I can’t even believe they were able to locate us with the directions we gave them.. but they did!
The next day we went to Crystal Mountain, rode the gondola up the mountain, and had lunch.
My mom was not too happy about the gondola.. but we powered through. 🙂
The view at the top was totally worth it. The mountain (Mt. Rainier) was so beautiful, she cried.
It was a gorgeous sunny day for adventure, and we had a great time together as a familyl!
I still can’t believe my family got dragged along for my first time boondocking! 😛
At the top of the gondola ride, there was plenty of hiking to check out, too.
My brother and I enjoyed the ride down. It was crazy seeing all of the lush grassy mountainside that we were used to seeing covered in snow.
Overall it was a great adventure and pretty hilarious experience. Totally worth it, and I can’t wait to go back!
What do you think?