Dan Forry: Ranger Out West

Dan Forry has seen thousands of RVs in his twenty-eight years as an Iowa Park Ranger.  So after watching all those RVs pass by, what kind of RV did Dan get?














Does the picture above look familiar?  It should.  Dan Forry's photograph of his 2006 Palomino Bronco 1251 pop-up truck camper in Monument Valley was a winner in our first Truck Camper Magazine calendar contest.  To this day, Dan's winning photograph makes us want to return to that incredible landscape and explore its wondrous red rock formations.

Two years since Dan's triumphant calendar win, we felt it was time to catch up with Dan.  In his story, Dan shares his favorite parks, boondocking spots, camper modifications, and future truck camping plans.  He also tells us about a seemingly endless number of hobbies and interests.  This is one Park Ranger who loves getting out of the campground and hitting the road.

Bonnie and Dan Forry at Rocky Mountain National Park

At their niece's home near Parker, Colorado

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area near Hite, Utah

TCM: How did your interest in truck camping begin?

Dan: As a Park Ranger in Iowa for twenty-eight years, I had watched a lot of motorhomes, towables, and campers come into our park.  The motorhomes and fifth wheels didn’t appeal to me and I didn’t want to tow a trailer.  I wanted something that’s more mobile so my wife and I can drive to the end of the road and go hiking.  I also wanted something that would be bought and paid for when I retire in a few years.

TCM: When did you buy your Palomino?

Dan: In January of 2007, I went to a Palomino truck camper dealership near where my son lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The first camper we looked at had everything we wanted.  Now we have a 2006 Palomino Bronco 1251.  The Palomino was a year old, but brand new, so we were able to get it at a good price.

Our Ford F-250 short bed truck and camper are twenty-one feet long.  We can park just about anywhere.  And our truck camper is easy to maneuver, especially with the winding roads in some of the parks.

Valley of the Gods Road, Utah

Emerald Lake Trail, Rocky Mountain National Park

Hovenweep National Monument Campground

TCM: Tell us about being a Park Ranger in Iowa.

Dan: I have been a Park Ranger for the Butler County Conservation Board since 1982.  I have five small campgrounds that I help take care of in the summer.  I enjoy meeting the different campers and we normally get a few truck campers in the course of a season.  

Iowa enjoys a unique system of having a county conservation board in each of our ninety-nine counties.  Each conservation board employs staff to take care of the campgrounds, parks, lakes, wildlife areas, and other assorted trails.  All of our campgrounds are along small streams and rivers.  

TCM: Tell us about the storage compartment you built under the back of your camper.

Dan: Most truck campers don’t have a lot of storage space, especially pop-up models.  The camper we have has an overhang over the back.  To me this was wasted space.  I bought a hidden hitch platform that goes into the hitch receiver and built a storage box from materials at home.  We keep a tarp, gas grill, electrical cord, garden hose, electrical tool box, and firewood in that storage box.

On the right end of the rack that is not enclosed I keep our folding steps.  The attachment on the top of the box is about six inches past the camper, so I can set the steps over that when in use.  When I’m done with the steps, I secure them up with a chain and padlock so they don’t fall off as we’re going down the road.

TCM: Have you made any other modifications to your rig?

Dan: I’ve made a few other modifications.  For example, I built a storage compartment in the back wing of my camper for a portable Honda generator.  I also designed a better solution to collect my grey water.  I used to put a pail out to collect my grey water.  Now I use a six gallon water jug that I put in the truck bed wheel wells.  I have a shut off system hose up above the level of the water so I can turn off the water and carry the grey water to be dumped.  It’s a nice addition.  

Finally, I installed a deep cell Group 24 battery that I have mounted in the front right corner of the truck bed that plugs into my camper wiring harness.  That way I have power whenever we need it and don’t have to use it from the truck.

On the rim of Monument Valley Tribal Park, Arizona

Bonnie eating breakfast, Monument Valley

Sunrise in Monument Valley

TCM: In your 2008 Truck Camper Magazine calendar winning photograph, it looks like you’re right there with the formations in Monument Valley.  Tell us about camping there.

Dan: Monument Valley is right on the Utah and Arizona border.  We were there in November of 2007, just in time to take the calendar photo.  The original campgrounds were being eliminated in favor of a new hotel.  They had a flat area west of the visitor center that allowed primitive camping for $5.00 a night.  There were two other campers there that night.  

They had an open flat area that is right on the edge of the small plateau.  It’s the perfect view of the Mittens.  It has to be one of the most fantastic spots we have stayed.  It was a quiet and wonderful experience.

TCM: Did you drive through Monument Valley with your camper?

Dan: Yes, we did.  We have four-wheel drive and I grew up on a farm so I know how to get out of situations.  In the past, we have been up on paths in the Rocky Mountains in off-road areas.  I really don’t let anything hold me back.

TCM: Where else have you been out West?  

Dan: While on the trip in 2007, we also visited Valley of the Gods, Natural Bridges National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Hovenweep National Monument, Gooseneck State Park, and Edge of the Cedars State Park.  It was a 3,200 mile round trip from our residence in Northeast Iowa.  It was a great trip!

In September of 2009, went back out to Utah to Arches, Natural Bridges, Capitol Reef,  Bryce Canyon, and Grand Canyon NP where we spent three days on the North Rim.  There’s definitely an advantage to living in Iowa.  We’re right in the middle of the country.  We’ve been out to Maine and out to California.

Gunnison National Forest, Cottonwood Pass Road, Colorado

Pike National Forest near Castle Rock, Colorado

Arches National Park, Utah

TCM: Do you have some favorite spots where you go truck camping out west?

Dan: Bryce Canyon National Park.  We spent an afternoon taking a mule ride down in to the canyon.  It’s an amazing place!  The campgrounds are very nice and well laid out.

There’s a place up on Crested Butte called Lost Lake.  It’s a state forest campground with no facilities and there are like six spots.  You’ve got to drive fifteen miles on a gravel road to get there.

Near Buena Vista, Colorado there is a place called Cottonwood Pass.  As you go over the dirt road over the mountain, there’s a state forest campground.  That’s a nifty place to boondock.

We went to Rocky Mountain National Park in September of 2008 and spent three nights in the park.  The bugling we heard was the mating calls from the elk.  It’s sounds like a cross between a scream and a donkey.  We were woken up at two in the morning.  There were elk not too far from our camper.  The bulls were bugling.  It was really neat to look out our camper window to see their forms moving about in the prairie.  You have to get there in September to see the elk like that.

TCM: Where do you still want to visit that you haven’t been to yet?

Dan: This fall we’re planning to go up to the Northwest.  I’d like to go into North Cascades, Crater Lake, and catch Yellowstone on the way back.   

As we travel, we get off the interstate as much as we can.  On our trip to Colorado, we spent more time on gravel roads than regular roads.  DeLorme has an off-roads and trails atlas that is invaluable because it tells you where you can and can’t go.  During the winter, we search the internet for off-road places to go and see.

Last summer, we went to Southwest Iowa to Waubonsie State Park.  We climbed up on the ridge where we were overlooking the Missouri River Valley.  On that very date 205 years earlier, Lewis and Clark were standing there.  That was very special.  I’ve been on the Lewis and Clark Trail and I want to go to North Dakota to see the new Visitor Center.

TCM: You seem to have quite a few interests while you are on the road.  Tell us about your interest in bird watching and tractor collecting.

Dan: I am a semi-avid bird watcher and the crane migration is an annual trek for us.  My wife and I have plans to go the third week of March to Platte River in Nebraska.  The Sandhill Cranes come from South Texas and North Mexico up to Nebraska.  They stop at the Platte River and spend two or three weeks to put on some fat and rest up.  When the south winds pick up, they go to the North.  It’s a spectacular sight to go there.  With our pop-up camper, we can hear them on the sand bars squawking all night long.

Orange Spectacular, Allis Chambers Show, Hutchinson, Minnesota

Harlan Lake State Park, South Central, Nebraska

Church Retreat at Pilgrim Heights Camp near Tama, Iowa

TCM: And tractor collecting?

Dan: I have about a dozen tractors.  We have local tractor shows about thirty miles away where I’ll put a tractor on the trailer behind the camper.  It’s a good time because we are able to talk to people with like interests.  There are some truck campers at those events.

I have lots of other interests.  I’m an avid hunter, a life member of NRA, and I’m in the local Pheasant Forever group.  I’ve been in that group since 1985 when it started.  Our Butler County chapter raised $97,000 for habitat improvement last year, which ranks us number 17 out of 631 chapters in the United States.  I’m very happy about that.

We also like to go hiking and exploring.  We’re taking the opportunity to go out on trips every year.  I’m very fortunate to have a wife who likes to do the things that I like to do.  My wife and I are really close and we really enjoy truck camping!

TCM: It certainly sounds like you and Bonnie have a lot of fun.  Thank you for sharing your story.

Dan: You’re welcome.