Best place you ever 'tent' camped?

[gregkthompson]

Man, Ghostdog, that looks so cool, would love to find a place like that. Could spend hours sitting there were the pic was taken.

[Lamebeaver]

Originally Posted by ghostdog

Here;

Looks like it might get interesting if it rained.....

[ghostdog]

Originally Posted by Lamebeaver

Looks like it might get interesting if it rained.....

The brain eating amebas are huge!

Lamebeaver, you would really have to be there to see how the tent is situated. It is not easy to see how the ground lays in the image. One thing I always do is choose my tent site very carefully. That tent is sitting on ground higher than the small channel that runs downhill and the whole site is very near the highest ground anywhere around. We are at the top of the watershed. I have seen a canyon flash before. The place you see in the image is not going to fill up like a bath tub or a slot.

Here is the spot we put the tents in when our friend accompanied us. Again, this is the desert high ground and everything drops away from this little plateau. In this image you can see where the shallow channels drain. See how the tents are up on a slightly high hump of ground above the drainages? Same concept at the first site.



If it is mud you are worried about, that is a real issue. The mud is tenacious when it rains out in that place but can be dealt with on foot. The roads leading in become impassible even with 4WD so no hurry on hiking back out until the surface dries but it is like that all over the Colorado Plateau. We have hiked and camped in there when it did rain, and even in deep snow once. We are going back soon.

[Lamebeaver]

It's a beautiful spot. How close is the nearest water source?

[briansnat]

North Point in the Catskills has to be one of the better spots. The view is positively breathtaking with the Hudson River valley to the east, North/South Lake to the south and the rest of the Catskill Mountains to the south and west. Unfortunately the last time I was there the state had put up a no camping sign. I guess it was too popular even though it's a 4 mile hike from parking.

Another one was a site we had on Pharaoh Lake in the Adirondacks. A little moss covered knoll overlooking a beautiful wilderness lake.

One more that comes to mind was a site we had on Little Tupper Lake in the William C Whitney Wilderness Area. It was on a small island, maybe 100 ft wide by 200 feet long. The island had towering pine trees and the view of the lake from the site was outstanding.

[ghostdog]

Originally Posted by Lamebeaver

It's a beautiful spot. How close is the nearest water source?

All of the runoff in the immediate area eventually channels into a main wash and in places it is cut deep. I have seen seasonal catchments sitting over sandstone or clay in places but they are not reliable and quality is questionable. There are ancient pottery shards along the drainage so it looks like the ancients caught their water in ceramic containers in times of rain and moved on in drought. There are no perennial streams or springs. I carry 12 liters on those romps and girlfriend carries 8 liters. We have to resupply after three days. It is a lot different than the fresh, gushing mountain streams that you are used to and that is probably the reason we don’t see anyone else in there. Elsewhere on the Plateau we have found seeps where we can fill the drom bags and avoid the chalky, silt laden streams but there are areas where we rely on what we can carry.

[firedancer]

One of my favorite commercial campgrounds is right on the Colorado River in Glenwood Canyon - I had a lovely river-side tent site. Nothing like the sound of rushing water to lull you to sleep!