How to Plan a Group Camping Trip

Last Fall, Grace and I planned a group camping trip for about 15 of our friends to celebrate Grace's birthday. Because of the number of people and our priority of having our own plot of land out in the wild away from civilization and other campers, there were a lot of logistics involved! But through some diligent planning and a bit of luck, it turned out to be one of my favorite weekends of last Fall if not all of 2016. Though it's been a few months, today I want to share a bit about that trip and my tips for planning a group camping trip!

Also, I was truly having so much fun that weekend that I forgot to take many photos, so some of the photos in this post are from the website advertising the place we rented, and some others are my friends' that they posted on social media. But overall the best representation of the weekend is the video below, which my videographer friend Bia made to commemorate our experience. Watch it to get an idea before reading the rest of the post!

The location of our group camping weekend was Joshua Tree, an area we've visited and loved many times since living in Southern California. Once we decided that we wanted to plan a group camping trip for Grace's birthday, we spent a ton of time trying to find the perfect spot that could accommodate 15-20 people. I would say that was the most difficult aspect of the planning process. We really wanted to get a place with at least a bathroom for our friends who weren't as comfortable in the outdoors, and we needed somewhere to cook large group meals. We wanted it to be within 1-2 hours of LA, and we needed something affordable, as we were committed to paying for the space on our own so that our friends would only have to contribute by bringing whatever food and drinks they wanted. This was especially important to us because a few of our friends were buying camping gear specifically for this trip, so we didn't want the trip to be a financial burden on anyone. Our budget was about $300-400--pretty tight to find a place where 15-20 people could stay for a whole weekend!

But, Hipcamp came through with the perfect place. (By the way, Hipcamp doesn't know me. I just love them.) We camped at Skycamp Joshua Tree, which has three separate campsites within it. Normally, you can reserve just one of the sites, and then there are communal areas to share with other campers. But we decided to reserve all three sites so that we would have the entire place, including communal areas, to ourselves. I can't say enough great things about Skycamp. It's a flat plot of land surrounded by mountains and desert scenery. There is a large covered space that serves as the communal kitchen and outdoor dining area, and there is a really nice bathroom setup with a flushing toilet (as opposed to a porta potty situation). There is even an outdoor shower with hot water! It was pretty chilly on the weekend that we camped, but other than that, I really can't imagine a better setup for a group camping trip.

Our lovely bathroom setup

My friend Alex Stevenson took this beautiful photo looking out at the sunset from our camp site :)

My first tip for planning a group camping trip is to plan EARLY if you can. If you can get people to contribute to the cost, you can likely afford something pretty great. But even if you want to front the cost yourself, there are group sites out there that I've seen for around $80 a night. Usually, those less expensive places are within a larger campground, so you might not have as much privacy, but it's a great option.

And in the same vein as planning early, I really recommend just biting the bullet and booking something, even if you don't necessarily have confirmation that the weekend will suit everyone's schedule or the location is to their liking. Grace and I have found a few times when planning group camping trips or getaways that we just have to rent something or make a reservation, and if it works for other people's schedules, they can join us. In every case, we've ended up having a group be able to join us, but if we tried to plan with everyone's input, the planning would get stilted and we'd never actually get the plan off the ground. Executive decisions are key!

Photo by Bia, who made the video above!

Once we had it booked, we needed to get everyone organized. I recommend a combination of Facebook events (If you use Facebook) and Google Docs. We made a Facebook event to get the camping weekend on people's radar, and then within the event we included a link to a Google Doc. The Google Doc helped us keep track of who was coming (for purposes of buying food), and it helped match people who needed a spot in a tent or who needed a ride to Joshua Tree with others who had room in their tent or car. We also had a space for people to write whether they were bringing food to share and whether they had any outdoor games or gear to contribute.

Speaking of food, for the group camping trip we kept it simple. Given the variety of palates, dietary restrictions, etc. of our friends, we figured we would let them bring their own preferred meats or non-meats to grill, favorite snacks, and alcohol/other beverages. Grace and I brought enough food to make a basic hot breakfast for everyone each morning with about 60 eggs, a few cartons of croissants from the Costco bakery, and a few boxes of veggie sausages (we don't eat real sausage but we were happy for people to bring their own). Then for dinners, most people brought burgers and other foods to grill, and we provided a side that everyone could customize to their liking: grilled potato packets! I diced a bunch of raw potatoes and laid out a variety of toppings, like cheese, chopped tomatoes, vegetarian "bacon bits," green onion, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, and more. Everyone could take foil sheets and make their own potato packets with the toppings they liked, seal them up, and put them on the grill for 20-30 minutes. It was the tastiest addition to the grilling meats and veggies that everyone brought.

Skycamp has a large barrel-style grill, which made cooking for a group easy. In the evenings, we would make bonfires in the rock fire pits, which were set up just below the eating area. After dinner we would have a few drinks and roast marshmallows--my favorite part of the day!

Amir Nikoui, who also happens to be Grace's producer on Pop Trigger and Murder with Friends, took this photo of us.

In terms of planning activities, we didn't do much. The Joshua Tree landscape is a great place for videography and photography, which a lot of our friends do for their jobs and/or hobbies, so that kept people occupied. You can also hike right from the campground, so a few of our friends would set off doing that from time to time during the weekend. But overall the main way we spent our time was just enjoying the views and relaxing. With that in mind, one thing I recommend asking people to bring on a group camping trip is their own chair. It ended up working out perfectly at our campground because Skycamp comes with a few chairs and tables, as well as some hanging hammock chairs, but we also supplemented with a bunch of folding "soccer mom" chairs. Being able to make a circle of our chairs for telling stories, eating meals, and playing games like Mafia (haha!) made everyone so much more comfortable, and it would have been a long weekend of sitting on the ground otherwise.

Finally, my last recommendation when planning a group camping trip is to keep an open mind about others' comfort levels and abilities with camping. Grace and I feel very comfortable roughing it for a weekend, but to appeal to a wider interest, we knew that we needed to find a place with a few amenities. Also, some of our friends didn't want to sleep in a tent, so they drove to Joshua Tree just for a day trip to hang out and celebrate. And that was great too! Group camping trips can be a behemoth to plan and execute, so not trying to control everyone's schedule or interests (looking at myself here) is the key to making it smooth and actually FUN.

We are already thinking about doing a similar group trip for Grace's birthday this coming November! It's a new tradition that I think will only get sweeter with time as we get a chance to explore more and more places. That said, I would also gladly return to Skycamp--it's a special experience!

Memories of the weekend captured by my friend Sara Snyder

This has nothing to do with the subject of this post, but I wanted to also include a heartfelt THANK YOU here to anyone reading. When I started this blog less than two months ago, I truly never thought more than a handful of people (mainly my family and a few friends) would read it. And that was totally fine with me! I was just seeking an outlet to write and share. I had hopes of building community and reaching people that I'd never meet in real life, but I didn't expect that would happen quickly, if at all. 

When I started this blog, I also didn't at all expect to lose Casper within a few weeks. And while that pain is still searing, sharing his story has been such an encouragement and comfort. As it turns out, a lot of people found this blog through Casper, and getting emails from people around the world about him has made my heart swell. Through analytics, I can see where people are reading my blog from (don't worry, not your exact location! Just your country), and it has been amazing to find out that about half of my readers are international! I know this blog is styled as a Southern California camping blog, but I'm hoping that some posts (like this one) will be applicable no matter where in the world you are reading. It has been so exciting seeing all of the countries on my analytics page, and I want to say thank you so much and give a shout-out to: Australia, Canada, Kuwait, Germany, Russia, Ireland, France, Belgium, Norway, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Portugal, Morocco, the Netherlands, Denmark, Slovenia, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Austria, Mexico, India, Georgia, Bulgaria, New Zealand, Ukraine, Serbia, Chile, Singapore, Greece, Brazil, Japan, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Italy, Taiwan, Namibia, Kenya, Guatemala, Romania, Colombia, Egypt, Croatia, Israel, Malaysia, Sudan, Monaco, Nicaragua, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Latvia, Poland, Suriname, and South Africa. I have never been to the vast majority of these places, and I am in disbelief that people from almost every continent are reading! (Still holding out for you, Antarctica). Thank you, thank you, thank you. I realize that about 95% of you probably found me through Grace and the Young Turks, and that's awesome. That you would spend part of your day reading my little blog is beyond humbling. I say this in basically every post, but I really would love to get to know anyone reading, so do feel free to Contact me and introduce yourself. The emails I've gotten so far are so wonderful. Thank you. 

xoxo

My 5 Favorite Road Trips

Grace and I take little weekend getaways pretty often. We try to go camping or get out of town about once a month. When we can, we take longer trips, too. Today I want to recap my top five favorite road trips we've taken so far. I had a hard time limiting myself to just five, so I hope to share some details about other past trips in a different post later on! I could go on and on about these adventures, so grab a glass of wine or a hot mug of tea because this post is l-o-n-g. Without further ado, here are my top five (in no particular order):

1. Our weeklong road trip from Sonoma to San Diego (and a lot of places in between) in Summer 2015

Even though I just said these trips were listed in no particular order, this one is my favorite overall. We started the trip in Berkeley, California, where I lived at the time. From there, we went to Sonoma and enjoyed a private wine tasting on a hilltop (with Casper!) at Kamen Wines. That night, we camped in nearby Santa Rosa, California.

The next day we drove down the coast to Point Reyes and stopped for lunch at Hog Island, where we ate the best oysters on earth. We continued down to Big Sur and stayed the night in a tent cabin at Fernwood Resort.

If you're in Big Sur with a pup (or just on your own), don't miss Pfeiffer Beach (pictured in the last couple of photos above). It's stunningly beautiful and was mostly empty on a weekday even in summer. It's perfect for us because it's dog friendly, but it's not an off-leash dog beach--due to Casper's issues with other dogs, any environment where a dog can run up to him unexpectedly is a no-go for us. It's rare to find a beach that allows dogs but requires them to stay on leash, much less one as gorgeous as Pfeiffer.

After waking up in beautiful Big Sur, we drove further down Highway 1 to spend the night in Pismo Beach. Before we got there, we stopped for a picnic lunch on the charming pebble beach of Cayucos. Pismo was a random choice for us to spend the night (having never heard of it previously), but it ended up being probably our favorite campground of the trip. We stayed at North Beach Campground. The sunset from that night, shown below, is the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen in my life, and I still think about it all the time.

The next day we drove to Ojai and stayed at the lovely Ojai Valley Inn and Spa. It's pet friendly! Casper was treated like royalty. This was our one "splurge" night of the trip, and as you'll see from the photos below, it was so worth it. One of our favorite touches: at check in, there is a sign telling the exact time of that night's sunset (the "pink moment" sign in the photo below). We planned our dinner that night around that time, choosing to eat at one of the on-site restaurants, Olivella, which had just opened that week!

Our last two stops of the trip were a night in Joshua Tree at this Airbnb and then a final night in San Diego at Grace's aunt's condo before returning to Grace's house in LA. This was our first big trip with Casper, and I'm still so thankful for how smoothly it went and what an unforgettable time we had.

2. Yosemite National Park, Spring 2016

Looking back, it's amazing to me that this trip happened. We went to Yosemite for the first time during my final spring break of law school, and we only had about a week in advance to plan it, find a place to stay (with an 80-pound dog in tow), etc. The reason for the last-minute chaos was because I had originally been planning to go to Turkey for my spring break as part of a delegation of students from Berkeley. I studied abroad in Turkey during undergrad, so it was the perfect opportunity for me to go back. However, the trip was cancelled at the last minute because of a string of bombings in Istanbul and Ankara. I digress--but it's relevant to the extent that if you're attempting to plan a Yosemite trip with only one week's notice, it IS possible!

We spent two days in the park, staying a short drive outside the gates in this dog-friendly Airbnb. I cherish the memories of our visit, and I can confidently tell you that we did Yosemite RIGHT. Our strategy primarily involved waking up early and beating the crowds. Simple as that. I plan on writing a separate post just on Yosemite tips (even in the low season, it is an extremely popular destination and the amount of crowds can make or break your experience--especially with a dog). Since I'll go into detail about Yosemite later, I'll just leave you with a few photos of our time there for now :)

3. Pinoeertown Cabin, Memorial Day 2015

Probably the most life-changing trip we've taken so far was to an off-the-grid cabin near Pioneertown, California, which is sort of in the Palm Desert/Twentynine Palms area. Grace planned this trip as a surprise getaway for us and Casper. The reason it was such a meaningful trip was because of the profoundness of the silence and alone time there. Getting to the cabin involved driving five miles down a dirt road, and the cabin itself runs totally off well water and generator electricity. It is quite literally "off the grid." There is no cell phone service or internet. We spent the weekend star gazing, making fires and roasting marshmallows in the little wood-burning stove, cooking amazing meals (with all ingredients brought in with us--there's no grocery store or other people for miles and miles), playing Scrabble, Grace playing guitar, napping, talking about things that matter, and taking little hikes from right outside our front door. Everything about it felt like pure magic. It's from this trip that our love of quiet, wild getaways really grew. The vastness of the frontier surrounding our cabin and the way it made us feel even partially inspired one of Grace's tattoos.

Grace found the cabin on Airbnb, but sadly, it is no longer available to rent. However, there are some similar looking places nearby that we want to check out at some point.

4. Treehouse in Ojai, California, Spring 2017

This is one of the most recent getaways we've taken, and it's a favorite for a few different reasons. We found the treehouse on Hipcamp, which is an awesome resource for private campsites and rustic cabin-type properties. We booked the place on a whim when we were craving some time outdoors, but we didn't really know what to expect. What we found is that along with the treehouse property comes an entire mountaintop near Ojai, California, covered with stunning oak trees. There is a beautiful insulated treehouse for sleeping, 40 acres of land for Casper to roam, an al fresco dining area with a grill, prep tables, etc., a fun rope swing, a hammock, badminton, frisbee golf, croquet, and even a little bathroom setup with running water. From the mountaintop, you can see the Pacific ocean and the Channel Islands if the weather is clear. It's incredibly lush and green, which is a very different environment from a lot of camping in Southern California. It's also one of the shortest drives for a getaway--only about 2 hours from LA. 

One of the funniest memories from this trip is the experience of getting Casper up into the treehouse. There's a ladder that was fairly simple for Grace and me to scramble up, but for a four-legged travel companion, it was extremely tricky. What ended up happening is that Grace would sit at the top of the ladder, on the treehouse platform, while I would lift Casper up and push him into Grace's waiting arms. There was a lot of trial and error involved. But it was worth the pulled muscles to have sweet Casper up there with us. We definitely plan on going back, maybe even with a big group of friends since there's so much land for people to camp in tents in addition to the treehouse (which can sleep about 4 comfortably).

5. Our First Ever Camping Trip in Summer 2014

Last but not least, I have to mention our first ever camping trip together: the trip that started it all. Way back in Summer 2014, we didn't even have Casper yet! Summer was waning and I wanted to do something special before I had to go back to Berkeley for the school year, so I planned this trip as a surprise for Grace one weekend in July. I grew up camping with my dad, but Grace had never been. We camped at Fairview Campground in the Sequoia National Forest, about three hours north of LA. I'll never forget that evening--we cooked over an open fire, roasted marshmallows, and just as we were turning in for the night, a light warm summer rain started to fall and pitter-pattered on our tent all night. The Kern River also runs through the back of the campground, and before dinner, we sat on rocks beside it, dipped our feet in, and had some wine. It was dreamy. We've since been back to Fairview Campground with Casper and we LOVE it. It's our favorite campground in Southern California. I plan on doing a separate post just about this "home base" campground of ours and how to find your own!

While on this trip, we also hiked the nearby Trail of 100 Giants, which is a great way to see the giant redwoods in Southern California. Many people think they're only up north, but it's not true! Sequoia National Forest is a gem and not at all difficult to reach from LA.

Honorable Mention: Sausalito, January 2017

It's impossible to keep this list to just five trips. A final shout-out goes to Sausalito, where we recently spent a weekend with Casper at Grace's aunt's charming guest house (Grace has relatives in the best places. No joke, her cousin lives in The Bahamas and we are trying to figure out a way to get there, too!). The photos below from our trip speak for themselves to convince you that Sausalito is well worth the visit if you're in the Bay Area. To us, it was even worth a 6-hour drive in its own right!

Amazing photo taken by Grace's Aunt Annie, right from her back patio! Sausalito is magic.

It's so much fun for me to recap these trips. Thanks for reading! If you are planning a getaway to any of these places, feel free to use my Contact page to get in touch, and I'd be happy to share more tips with you.

The Heart Behind "Have Dog, Will Drive"

Welcome to Have Dog, Will Drive! I am so glad you're here. I've thought about starting a blog for a long time. Something always held me back, but recently, I decided it was now or never. The same day I decided to finally start one, the phrase "Have Dog, Will Drive" popped into my head. When I checked the domain name and saw that it was available, I decided it was meant to be. All that being said, what's really the purpose for starting this blog, especially given that it's already so easy to share life through Instagram and other social media?

1. I love to document my memories. The photo above shows just a few of the photobooks, prints, and journals I have created and accumulated over recent years. I'm the type of person to physically print most of what I post on Instagram, because I adore paper and tangible representations of memory. I journal almost every day, and a couple of times a year, I print an Artifact Uprising photobook of all of the trips Grace and I have taken recently. Despite that, I felt myself craving an outlet somewhere in between the simplicity of Instagram and the once-or-twice a year thoroughness of a photobook. Something like my written journals, but where I could easily add in photos and have a full record of trips and other special times. After thinking about it, I realized that a blog could fill that gap for me.

2. But why share it and make it open for others to read? Because I want to build community and pay forward all that I have learned. I love blogs, and I plan to share many of my favorites here. I've been reading blogs almost daily for years, and as I've invested more and more in my hobby of camping and weekend getaways, I've learned so much from bloggers. As I began planning our next big road trip of driving from Los Angeles to Alaska and back (happening in September 2017; I'll write a LOT more about it as time goes on), I discovered that planning a trip like that would be almost impossible without drawing from the wisdom and experiences of others. The more I read, the more I realized I had a lot to share. My hope is that this site will make getaways easier to plan and more realistic for people, especially those traveling with a dog.

3. What to expect here: a lot of ideas and how-to's for weekend trips in and near Southern California. My experiences mostly involve camping in a tent, but there will also be some "glamping" trips as well as more traditional vacations. I'm also planning to write posts geared toward dog owners, and I have a lot to share about my experiences loving and caring for an older rescued pit bull with some special issues (much more on Casper to come!). If that sounds similar to your situation, I'd love to connect. At the end of this summer (2017) and into the fall, this space will be filled with all-things-Alaska, including guides, recaps, and planning resources as we take the journey North--and then back South. You'll also occasionally find some glimpses of my everyday life with Grace and Casper, things that inspire me, city guides for places I've lived, etc.

4. Last of all, who is the heart behind Have Dog, Will Drive? In case someone is reading this who doesn't already know me in person, I'd love to get to know you! My name is Elizabeth, but many people in my life call me Lizzie. I was born in North Carolina, and I lived there for the first 22 years of my life. Now, I'm living in my Promised Land of California. I've been dating Grace for about 4 years, ever since meeting in a random college elective course during my last semester of undergrad. We both attended Elon University and love our alma mater. The first three years of our relationship was long distance while I completed my law degree at Berkeley and Grace lived in LA. In May of 2016 I graduated and finally moved to LA for good. Though we maintain separate residences for now--about 0.8 miles apart in West Hollywood, California--Grace and I share the sweetest dog on earth. Since Grace and Casper are my main travel companions, they will be the ones most often appearing here, but I have many other wonderful and beautiful friends and family that I hope will also grace the pages of this blog along the way. Thank you so much for reading!