Thanks, Don Cyclo: Camped at Matthews Arm. The leaves are close — a week or two from peak I reckon. We're going back in two weeks and really hoping that it won't be too late!
Wow nice photos the black Prius looks so nice in the dark Fall motif. Could be an ad for Prius...did you sleep in the car with the seats down?
Thanks, Tracy We didn't sleep in the car (though we did consider it)... Ours is the tent you see to the left of the car in the first photo. We loaded the car pretty much to capacity (tent, sleeping bags, air mattress and pump, hiking packs and boots, clothes, supplies, small stove and three people) and had to leave some cooking supplies at home... Am seriously considering a roof-box for next season.
don't. Go through your gear and consider what you need and what you don't. Pick items which could be used in multiple conditions. We rode across country on motorcycle (23 days total) in conditions ranging from hot desert to frost in high mountains, and all our stuff fit in 3 m/c boxes, ~4cu.ft total. Second go to container store and get some generic containers which fit in the back, you'd be surprised how more efficient you can be with space good luck.
We've done a fair bit of camping in our Prius, too. It's amazing what fits, and we tend to bring more than we need, just because there's room. For many reasons, I'd rather do without a roof box. Most of our camping equipment is also used for cycling and backpacking, so it tends to be pretty light and compact, though of course that just leaves room for more stuff. If there's room in the hatch for the portable barbecue, and space behind the front seat for the electric cooler, in they go.
We have a roof box which works fine at the expense of -10 MPG. We mainly use roof box when we have passengers in the back seat and lots of stuff, which lately has been rare. Vacations and xmas mainly.
