A very courageous and ambitious Will Martin along with his wife and in-laws recently roadtripped to Yellowstone with a one year old. (Um, that’s 15 hours each way!) He shares his experience below:

As “Rehab” by Amy Winehouse played on XM Radio for the 17th time, the gates of Yellowstone National Park finally came into sight. Our first attempt at camping with a baby was about to commence.

Emma is a one year old on the verge of walking and she has that “I’m a drunk old man” stagger. This made playtime in a dirty campsite difficult and messy, since crawling is her primary means of transportation. We tried a couple of walking toys with wheels to help her on a makeshift “nature walk,” but little rocks kept jamming the wheels. Cue light bulb above head — Pack ‘n Play. We set it adjacent to the picnic table and Emma was surprisingly excited to see it. Surrounded by toys, books and her blanket, she seemed legitimately entertained for at least an hour. I think it was the small taste of home that she liked.

Once dark, we slept in a pop-up trailer with Emma sandwiched between my wife and I. She was restless, trying to scale both of her parental barriers a number of times, but eventually gave up and fell asleep. Maybe next time she’ll remember to pack her climbing gear. Zing!

A couple things that helped us through the night were boiling a pot of water to warm up a bottle so it was ready to go in case she woke up in the middle of the night, and keeping a sea of warm blankets at our disposal for when the temperature dropped.

One thing that didn’t help: snoring grandparents. When you’re in the wilderness and you hear sounds like that, you can’t help but get worried that a buffalo (or herd of buffalo) have strayed into the campsite. I have a deviated septum and don’t even snore like that. For the love of god, wear a Breathe Right!

Items that helped during daytime hours were a baby carrier pack and a Caddy Hook-On Chair by Chicco, which is very portable and attaches directly to the table. One or two bottles of Fat Tire from the New Belgium Brewery should always be on hand as well.

After a few days of rivers and mountains and bears oh my, we strapped Emma and her grandma firmly in the backseat of the Suburban and began our journey home. Driving 15 hours to Yellowstone wasn’t as bad as we thought, but driving 15 hours back with a baby and a baby’s momma’s momma constantly conversing in gibberish tends to wear on a person after a long weekend. Just dial Johnny Cash up a few notches higher I guess.

Though it was challenging at times, getting Emma out of the city and into a place filled with wild animals and beautiful scenery was definitely a great experience for all. There’s nothing quite like fixing a meal of bananas, hot dog bits and Bush’s Baked Beans with the rain starting to fall and the urgent mating call of a Bull Moose in the distance.

It’s June and camping/roadtrip season is upon us. Do any of you have additional tips, must-have gear, or advice to share on road tripping/camping with baby?

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This entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.