Prius Camper Vacation

Prius Camper and Long Lake on the Beartooth Highway

My husband and I went on vacation for a couple weeks in July in our camper, our Prius Camper. I'd seen videos about people doing this since I bought my 2007 Prius. I knew I wanted to try this at least once. We had wanted to drive to Alaska this summer to celebrate our 25th anniversary, but Mr. Covid is keeping the borders closed to all but essential workers. We had to come up with alternative plans and stay closer to home. We needed a vacation and some time of restoration in nature more than ever after a whole spring quarter of isolation and intense online work activity.

While Rob was finishing up his final responsibilities, I got our Prius camper ready. The foundation of the bed is a piece of nice, thin, Masonite board, cut to size to level out the changes in elevation when the seats are down. The next layer is some floor mats made for shops that fit together like a puzzle from Harbor Freight. Then came the bed roll. This was two yoga mats sewn together, and three "egg crate" foam pads, cut to size, and then slid into two old flat sheets sewed into kind of a pillowcase. Top that with sheets and blankets and pillows and you have a pretty comfy set up. Later we slid in our back packing sleep pads, inflated, for easy storage, and just a bit more cushion.

But how did we make it long enough for Rob, you ask? When we put the car into sleep mode, we push the front seats forward, and then into the hole where the people in the back seats normally put their feet, we put two plastic boxes on each side. I spent a good amount of time at the store measuring boxes until I found the perfect combination that together are just 1/2 inch taller than our seat when it is laying down, and fill the whole space. We then make sure the sleeping pad is pulled into place, and blankets are smoothed, and we have a nice bed for the night.

Sleep Mode 

A window shade goes in the front window. And silver coated, insulated, "bubble wrap", cut to size goes in all the side windows to keep out the light. Then a special tent goes over the open back hatch. You can buy these made for a Prius, but I decided to sew one myself from some ripstop nylon and mosquito netting. This was the biggest DIY sewing project that I've ever taken on.

I've been thinking on the design for quite a long while. I was pretty sure it needed a zipper in the back, but had no idea how to pull that off in netting. But I set to work after gathering the supplies, including 9 yards of blue, rip stop nylon. It took me about three days of measuring, designing, cutting and sewing. It was such a big project, I couldn’t conceive all the steps beforehand. I had to work step-by-step, using everything I’ve ever learned about sewing, including seams and darts and zippers, to pull it off. It was like a tailoring project, except I didn’t get to take a tailoring class before they closed the Home Economics department at Walla Walla College. I did take Sewing for Interiors, and Clothing Construction and found they both applied to exteriors too. If only it was as simple as those classes. I didn’t have a pattern for a prius tent. I think Mrs. Olmstead would be proud of me, except for maybe the zipper installation. I found You Tube videos to watch about installing zippers in a plastic boat window and followed their steps. I couldn’t find one for putting one in netting though. Plus, I needed some higher quality materials than I could find at Joanns and in my sewing boxes. Even so, I have now a functioning zipper installed. For that, I am pretty proud. Next time it will turn out better.

Prius Tent in Action

Our Prius tent is pretty amazing and that may be an understatement. It keeps out mosquitoes, and gives us air flow. We secure it to the car with magnets. They hold quite well, except when there is a big, stormy, wind, gusting around the car. One night there was a thunderstorm and the wind was pulling the tent off. Rain started to fall too, so we had to lower the hatch. If a grizzly wandered by, we could pull the hatch down quickly from the inside of the car, take a few photos, and then go back to sleep

The ice chest goes into the front passenger seat along with some personal items. The clothing bags go in the front driver's seat. We have to be choosy about how much gear we bring as it all has to fit into the front of the car when we are in sleep mode and the seats are pushed forward.

Ice Chest and Personal Items in Place for Sleep Mode

The boxes we put at the head of the beds double as food boxes. In the morning, when we are ready to travel again, we spread a plastic tablecloth on the bed to protect the blankets, and the food boxes and ice chest and clothing bags, etc. go onto the bed for travel mode. Everything has its place. The 5 gallon water jug then goes into the floor space. It just fits with the seat pushed all the way back.

On the back of the car we have a little hitch and a rack where we have a folding table, two lawn chairs, and two, large, plastic boxes, . In those boxes we store additional camping gear like extra shoes and coats, the camp stove, and backpacks and gear. No food is kept on the back of the car. It all has to be inside the vehicle in grizzly country.

All in all, it is a very efficient little rig. There is just enough room for economic travel and dispersed camping in National Forests.

As we started our trip, we parked on the edge of a cut wheat field, with no house, or human in sight and had a pleasant night.

Good Morning Prius Camper

The second night found us up on the Beartooth highway, in Montana, we found another dispersed camping site, right by a lake and a mountain. Many people drive by on the highway, but so few slow down to enjoy what’s there. During the day a few came down our little gravel road, but most just turned around and left after a minute. We were all by ourselves at night.

Actually, that wasn’t quite true. We are all by ourselves with a million mosquitoes! It was almost as bad as in the Yukon the year we drove to Alaska, maybe 2002. The mosquitoes were so bad we wore head nets and gloves everywhere, and to eat we had to walk fast around the campground circle to keep ahead of the mosquitoes so we could have our nets up and put spoons of oatmeal in our mouths. Just like then, the mosquitoes lined up on the outside of our tent screens hoping for the opportunity to slip inside for dinner. Only this time we didn’t have the kids with us to help with the mosquito slapping party anytime someone had to open the door to go in or out.

Prettiest Kitchen Ever

At our current spot, sometimes the breeze would blow and then we wouldn’t have any hungry predators buzzing in our ears. But if there was no wind, we had to pull on our head nets and long sleeve jackets for protection.

I think if mosquitoes were the only thing to see on the Beartooth, we would be out of there really quick, like all the tourists driving by at high speeds. We had driven through before, seen meadows of wildflowers, took amazing photographs, and even stayed one night, but I had longed to return and spend more nights, and hike across a meadow to a mountain.

And that is exactly what we did the next morning.

The next post will be full of the best of the Beartooth.