Don’t let the snow stop you. Winter is a great time to chill out in your RV.
By Mike Wendland
February 2021
Who says you can’t have fun camping in the winter?
My wife, Jennifer, and I have been enjoying the RV lifestyle for nine years now, and there hasn’t been a single winter that we haven’t used our RV to camp in the cold and snow, enjoying myriad outdoor activities no matter how low the mercury has dipped.
How cold has it been, you ask? Would you believe minus 21 degrees Fahrenheit? You read that right. Twenty-one. Degrees. Below. Zero. And that was the actual thermometer reading. Add to that a stiff northwest wind, and it felt like it was more than 50 below.
The Wendlands stay cozy inside their motorhome, here at Michigan’s Tahquamenon Falls State Park, which keeps some sites cleared of snow.
We were on the northern shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota doing a story on the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, a grueling race that covers nearly 300 miles of rugged terrain from Duluth to the Canadian border.
We were in our Type B motorhome at the time, camped near a trail crossing northeast of the tiny hamlet of Finland, Minnesota, about 85 miles into the race and smack dab in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
The snow was so beautiful, three feet deep off the trail. At night, the stars were so bright and close that they made you gasp. Like the cold.
We heard wolf howls, and twice a large black wolf — the alpha male of the pack, according to one of the volunteers we met — came within 50 yards of us, drawn in by a curiosity of who in the world was camping out here.
Or maybe he just wanted to get warm inside our RV.
We were dressed properly for cold weather, of course, and we limited our time outside shooting videos of the passing mushers to no more than 30-minute stretches.
Tai, our double-coated Norwegian elkhound, thought he was in heaven in the snow and cold — although he was noticeably spooked by the wolf.
Winter hiking can be magical.
I took him out at sunup and he stopped, sniffed the air, and the hackles on his neck raised. Michelle, a volunteer who joined us at the crossing, said dogs typically are very spooked by wolves. “Sometimes a sled dog team will stop and lie right down when wolves are around,” she said. She’s a musher herself, from Minneapolis, and said the same black wolf, along with a female, were in the area the previous year.
While it was bitterly cold outside, we couldn’t have been more comfortable inside the RV. I had the furnace on, as well as a small ceramic heater, so even while boondocking in the woods with no hookups, the RV interior was a cozy 68 degrees.
The sled dog race along the Minnesota north shore may have been our most memorable winter RV camping adventure, but it was not the only one. Every January since 2013, we head to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where we spend a three-day weekend camping at Tahquamenon Falls State Park.
The first time we went, we were all alone. We chose the park for two reasons. One, it was open, and a dozen or so sites in the campground were kept plowed and snow-free. The other reason was that the 50,000-acre state park gave us an opportunity to see the falls. Tahquamenon is one of the largest waterfalls east of the Mississippi. It has a drop of nearly 50 feet, is more than 200 feet across, and has a water flow of 50,000 gallons per second.
It is spectacular in the winter. Frozen mist from the falls coats trees and rocks on the shore. The entire scene is breathtakingly beautiful.
Tahquamenon Falls State Park in Michigan is a favorite winter spot for the Wendlands.
While we slept that first night in January 2013, the temperature outside dropped to minus 7 degrees. The snow measured 28 inches. The next morning, feeling smug and rugged after spending the night in our RV in such cold, we looked out and we found we were not alone. A couple had set up camp right next to us.
In a tent!
For their honeymoon! I kid you not.
They ran a small electric heater off an extension cord into their tent and said they were plenty warm.
When we went back the next year, we invited our RVLifestyle.com followers who wanted to try winter camping to join us. A handful did. There were more the following year. And more after that. Today, we have close to 50 others winter camping with us.
What do we do? We hike in snowshoes, cross-country ski, photograph the falls, and hang out around huge campfires where we share snacks and socialize as we do at summer campouts. We just wear a lot more clothing.
So, winter camping can be fun, but to help, here are our seven top tips on how to make the most of it:
- Know the weather and conditions. Pay attention to the forecast and check with the highway department or local police about whether the roads are safe. Most RVs can easily handle a couple inches of snow, but high winds, ice-covered roads, and whiteouts mean you should postpone your trip.
- Use Reflectix to keep the heat in. A great secret for keeping the cold out and the heat in is covering your windows with Reflectix, a reflective bubble wrap form of insulation that can be found at the big-box home improvement stores. We cut it to fit our windows and push it snugly against them. It does an amazing job of keeping the cold from enter-ing and the heat from escaping.
- Flush the toilet with antifreeze. The biggest downside to winter camping is that you can’t use running water; your RV plumbing system needs to be winterized if you live or are traveling in a cold climate. But you can use the toilet. Just flush with RV antifreeze into the black-water tank.
The Wendlands and their winter camping friends socialize as they do in other seasons, albeit with more clothing layers.
- Use bottled water for drinking and brushing your teeth. Again, since your plumbing system is winterized, you need to bring your own hydration. Don’t put any water down the drain in the RV galley or bathroom sink, though. Pour any waste water in the toilet, chased with an equal amount of antifreeze.
- Use paper plates and plastic utensils. Since you can’t wash your dishes with water, use disposable plates. Or, if you want to be kinder to the environment, mix 2 tablespoons of white vinegar with water in a spray bottle, spray the dishes, and dry them with a towel. They will be squeaky clean.
- Determine where you store the extra clothing. Finding space in a small RV for parkas, boots, hats, gloves, insulated bibs, and other bulky winter weather gear can be challenging, so plan ahead.
- Make sure your smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarms are operational. Since your heater is on pretty much 24/7 while winter camping, install fresh batteries in all safety alarms before you set out.
We realize that cold weather camping is not for everyone. And that’s okay. That’s why God made Florida and the Southwest.
Mike Wendland is a veteran journalist. He and his wife, Jennifer, travel North America in a small motorhome, blogging about the people, places, joys, and adventure of RV life on the road at RVLifestyle.com. They also host the weekly RV Podcast and do twice-weekly videos on the YouTube RV Lifestyle Channel. They have written 10 books on RV travel.