OUR TRIPS
Sequoia National Park
First trip in our Mantis was a success. Lodgepole campground in California’s Sequoia National Park is really beautiful and only about 2.5 hours from our home. Mostly tent camping with a few small RV spots scattered throughout the campground, split between an awesome running river with several swimming holes. Elevation is 6700 feet. Some of the “RV” spots our very tight and have some weird approach angles so beware. Drive a lap around your campsite loop to determine the best direction to back in. We were in space 196. Great spot, but there are better ones closer to the river. No hookups at any sites but there is a dump station on the premises. I dropped in two new Battle Born lithium batteries prior to our trip and they worked perfectly. I still need to upgrade the stock charge controller and add some portable solar panels, among other things. We camped for 2 nights and 3 days with zero solar or generator power. My Victorn battery monitor wasn’t working properly (probably because I installed it in a hurry) so I was just patiently waiting for the batteries to drain, but they never did. I ran my Dometic dorm fridge and a Truma C44 fridge for the entire trip with zero issues. We now know that we use 20 gallons of fresh water in about 72 hours. (Family of 5 + 4 showers + excessive pandemic handwashing) It also takes us about 72 hours to fill up the cassette toilet too!
Santa Cruz / Monterey Bay KOA Holiday
Trip number 2 was a success. In these crazy times of looking for campsites in California, I found a couple nights available at a KOA near Santa Cruz. We booked this KOA because of its proximity to many beaches. This was our first experience at a KOA RV resort. It is definitely one of the most expensive RV resorts I have researched, but this park was built for families. Most of the amenities were shut down due to Covid. Having just visited Sequoia NP a couple weeks ago, I found a new admiration for National Park camping and National Park pricing. The KOA sites are small and super close together. Our Mantis felt out of place surrounded by mega 5th wheels and luxurious Class A motor homes. Our kids enjoyed riding their bikes around the park and roasting marshmallows over the camp fire. I finally got around to deploying the RTT that came with our purchase. The Tepui low-pro tent makes for a great additional bedroom for our family of 5. (Although our kids are a bit too young to sleep up there, they had fun playing in it) The @taxaoutdoors #Mantis definitely turns heads in every campground we have visited. We were just notified that our next reservation at Morro Strands State Park at the end of August was cancelled due to the rising Covid cases in California. So the search continues. #Boondocking maybe in our near future if we can’t secure any more summer reservations.