Winter camping?

[mkitchen]

At that time of year, you may be spending a lot of time within the confines of the tent. Night comes early and stays late in the morning. Can you keep the kids happy and comfy for that amount of time. That goes double if you run into a lot of weather near the north coast. I would romp, splash, play in the snow and then keg up in a motel for the night. Then again, motels get boring real fast and they all seem the same so if you have room for the gear, bring it along. If it looks like a night camping is going to work, then go for it. You can always go for the motel the next night and know the reason why by then.
My kids camped with me in the winter but I had a thick canvas tent with a woodstove in it. So long as I kept to stove going till they went to sleep and lit it before they go up, they we good with it and had a ball.
Mikey

[lam396]

I used to work at Crater Lake.....don't plan on camping there during the winter until your kids are older and you have snow camping experience. That said camp as much as possible while your kids are young. It will build a great appreciation of the outdoors....
This is from Dec. a couple of years ago while driving in Crater. The snow is even deeper by Feb.

WHOA! THat is an impressive picture. I guess some more research is in order for each area of interest. I have no interest in camping in 20 ft of snow though!

[lam396]

At that time of year, you may be spending a lot of time within the confines of the tent. Night comes early and stays late in the morning. Can you keep the kids happy and comfy for that amount of time. That goes double if you run into a lot of weather near the north coast. I would romp, splash, play in the snow and then keg up in a motel for the night. Then again, motels get boring real fast and they all seem the same so if you have room for the gear, bring it along. If it looks like a night camping is going to work, then go for it. You can always go for the motel the next night and know the reason why by then.
My kids camped with me in the winter but I had a thick canvas tent with a woodstove in it. So long as I kept to stove going till they went to sleep and lit it before they go up, they we good with it and had a ball.
Mikey

Good point, I hadn't thought about the daylight aspect yet. We will have the room for camping gear so I think I may bring it and maybe pitch a tent in the Redwoods, and maybe find a place at a lower elevation to camp a night also but find cheap hotels/motels along the way.

The purpose of the trip is two fold. The main attraction is Yosemite and seeing the El Capitan falls glow fire orange. I just saw a picture of this a couple weeks ago and would really like to see it. Second, we have had several mild winters in St. Louis and my wife wants some snow so we want to be able to play in the mountains and I saw that Sequoia has a "snow play" area, although I don't really know what is all there. Since it's over 2000 miles to Yosemite I thought we would hit up some other attractions and turn it into a "touring" roadtrip. We are open to suggestions though as to where to go and not go. The reason I picked those parks was because my parents had taken me when I was younger and I want to take my wife and show her. Although my wife enjoys seeing the parks and camping and what not, she really loves visiting new cities and trying new foods and sight seeing in a city also, which is why I wanted to go through SF. Would it be a bad time of year to visit SF?

Thanks for all the input. The way I understand it now is this: Crater Lake is not campable for typical people, Redwood will be wet, but not that snowy, Yosemite will be campable but will have snow and much of the park will be closed other than the valley and Sequoia will be much the same. And short days, cold days all the way around.

[john101477]

The main attraction is Yosemite and seeing the El Capitan falls glow fire orange

Um I dont mean to bust your bubble but I believe that is over with for the year. it only happens for a few weeks out of the year and that is in february

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/waterfalls.htm

[lam396]

Um I dont mean to bust your bubble but I believe that is over with for the year. it only happens for a few weeks out of the year and that is in february

http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/waterfalls.htm

No bubble bursting going on here, the first post mentioned this trip would be next February (2013).

[john101477]

ahhh ok lol, I though you were talking about a trip soon. I had a cpl of women post the fire falls for one of my Photography Challenges. It was the first time I had every seen it myself so now I also want to go. They said the crowds were horrible but the shots were worth it.