any Joshua Tree National Park experiences?

[catmanriff]

I was thinking about a winter trip out to Joshua Tree, which is about an hour and a half away. It gets cold at night but generally nice in the daytime. Anyone with advice? So, another question might be how to stay warm at night without using up the battery in our QS 10.0

was thinking here:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/jumbo-rocks-campground-twentynine-palms

[david]

I tent camped in the Joshua Tree NP five years ago. As you note the park has interesting rock formations and of course, the trees. If you want the experience of camping next to the big rocks, go on line and reserve a campsite that is surrounded by them as those sites are popular. It will be spectacular. But there are lots of campsites that are rather plain, so get a nice one.

You have the LPG furnace, right? If so the battery should be fine for a weekend of camping while running the furnace. The furnace blower probably draws about 4 amps and at a 50% duty cycle will only draw 20 amp hours overnight. If that is too much because of other loads, you may be driving to other attractions while leaving the camper behind. So remove your battery and hook it up to your TV and charge it with a cigarette lighter adapter and alligator clips while driving around. A couple of hours of driving will put back about 20 amp hours into the battery. If push comes to shove, pop your hood and hook the battery up to your car's battery with jumper cables and leave it idling for an hour.

If no LP furnace then consider a Mr Heater or Wave LPG radiant heater. But with no propane system in the camper you will have to use 1 lb. cylinders which won't last overnight. But they will last long enough to keep the interior decent before bedtime and when you wake up, sleeping bags and blankets in between.

There was a thread on winter camping that discusses these and other options.

David

[catmanriff]

I didn't get the LPG option. I looked at the little Buddy propane heaters. I do have access to a Honda EU2000 for recharging. Of course there are probably generator hours to follow as far as running it at night..