Campfires!

 

One of the best things about boondocking (living without hookups in your RV) is the campfires you're allowed to have in those areas. Most RV parks will not allow campfires, although I have been in a rare few where they've had a group campfire area. Most of the RV parks have the sites spaced too close together anyway, it would be dangerous to have a campfire.

A few weeks ago I was camped with 2 other solo female RVers in the National Forest near Durango - almost 9000' elevation. We had a heck of a time getting the fires to burn as they should. We had a nice large metal fire ring that was probably over a foot tall, with a grill we could flip on or not. We finally decided that the lack of oxygen at that elevation was partly the cause. Nevertheless, we had a campfire almost every night - with marshmallows!

I have since moved to another National Forest campground and have made a few campfires here, at 7000' elevation. I do believe I've had an easier time getting it to start burning and to continue burning without alot of fanning and adding kindling. The fire ring here is the strangest one I've ever seen. It's shallow and small, with the back half permanently covered with a metal lid, from which you can flip a grill down over the front half. It's not conducive to having a nice full fire, but I've been cooking on it a few times. I guess I should try some baked potatoes and corn on the cob in the back half that never gets any air, but probably retains lots of heat.

I never eat hot dogs except when I can put them on a long fork and toast them over an open campfire. Same thing with marshmallows - I will never eat a raw one (except the tiny ones in ambrosia salad), and you can't get me to eat that white stuff in a jar.  Do they still make that?  But, get one on a long stick over the fire - just lightly toasted - perfect. I have been toasting the new square ones lately - they're easy to toast and you can pull off the first crusted shell and toast what's left. They are much more manageable than the giant round ones I tried last spring.

 

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of setup my next site will have. 

 

Disclaimer - photos done with cell phone.