Week 4: That time we accidentally went glamping

Week 4 of the Weekly Travel Blogging Challenge: Travel Misadventures

Maybe I can’t say “accidently went glamping.” It was more like a series of events happened and we went glamping.

To preface this, every year our friends and us go somewhere to camp. It somehow became an annual event and we called it the “Friends Camping Trip.” In 2012, we went to Anza Borrego and Sequoia. In 2015, we went to Yosemite. In 2016, we went to Zion. This year, we’re going to Sequoia. In 2018, we’re slated to go to Taiwan — I’m not sure if this is going to be an actual camping trip.

When we camp, we pitch tents in a campground, make food, make a campfire, go hiking, and not shower for x amount of days. From our campground, we don’t have cellular data nearby and for some people not having cellular data would drive them crazy. In 2015, on the Yosemite trip, we had a few first-time campers who were not sure what to do with their cell phone without any cellular data. Also there’s no outlet to charge your phone anywhere. These first-time campers did not want to come back camping with us the following year.

Back to the original story, when we went to Zion last year, there were a series of events that happened where we ended up glamping. We spent a fews hours at Las Vegas from Los Angeles to rest — it was the halfway point to get to Zion. From Las Vegas to Zion, we left at 3 in the morning and had breakfast halfway through our trip. By the time we got to Zion, it was not even 7 AM and the lines to get into Zion were jammed. By the time we arrived a lot of the camp spots were already occupied and they don’t do advanced reservations. It was first-come, first-serve. We spent about 2 hours driving in the park looking for a camp spot and no luck.

I wonder, if we left at 2 AM or maybe skipped breakfast we could have found a spot? Not sure. Oh yeah, I have to mention, we went to Zion a Memorial Day Weekend. We won’t plan camping trip around a holiday again.

What is our definition of “glamping”?

When we couldn’t find a camping spot in Zion, my friend said, “worst case scenario, we can always find ourselves a dog friendly hotel.” I thought that was pretty funny.

I suggested let’s not look for a hotel in the area just yet. We already packed our tents, our sleeping bags, coolers of food, pillows. Packing for a camping trip is a lot of stuff for a rather short trip. Instead of looking a hotel, we looked for campgrounds outside of Zion.

And we found a place. It was a RV and campground right outside of Zion. About 30-40 minutes away from the main entrance, but about a five minute drive away from Kolob Canyon — a far less crowded part of the park.

The campground were nice, but I even have to say it rather fancy for a campground because it had:

Laundry unit which we used.
Wi-Fi
A full bathroom with toilet, sink, and showers. Yes, we showered during our camping trip. Instead of holding out until the last day of the camping trip and pay $5 to shower like in Yosemite, showers came with this campground and it was complementary.

Teddy is the most glamped up of all.

A firepit we did not make and logs were provided by the campground!

I was satisfied with my French Press coffee I brought on this camping trip, until I saw our neighbors drive into their spot with a cup of Starbucks. Are you telling me there’s a Starbucks close by? There was and we went to Starbucks. I can’t believe was “camping.”

Also to add, this campground was also an RV park and some of the RVs people had were nice! One of them had a karaoke machine in his RV and wanted to invite us over to karaoke. I wanted tell the person (jokingly), “Hi, not all Asians like to karaoke.”

What is your definition of glamping? Comment below!

Overall, our trip to Zion was a lot of fun. Instead of sharing all these unexciting photos of French press coffee and of Teddy sleeping in a tent, here’s a few photos of our Zion trip. I hope there will be opportunity to share more of these photos again, so here’s a teaser: