Prior to truck camping, I thought driving for two hours was a long time. Now I love climbing into our Ram truck, firing up the 6.4L HEMI, and letting that big dog eat for a few hundred miles. Angela actually gets upset at me because I won’t let her drive. The truth is I would let her drive more, but then we would get lost more. She’s the navigator in the family. I’m the driver.
While the Ram chews on the white line before us, I have a few favorite ways to pass the time. First and foremost, I listen to Sirius satellite radio. I am particularly fond of listening to 80’s on 8 (Channel 8), 1st Wave (Channel 33), and Classic Rewind (Channel 25). If the Sirius Radio antenna isn’t getting reception, I play music from my iPhone. Got to have my tunes.
Another one of my favorite driving pastimes is looking over to see what drivers and passengers in the passing lanes are doing. Nine times out of ten, the passenger is on their cell phone. Maybe one in ten, the driver is on their cell phone. Once I saw a vehicle driving at highway speed where both the driver and passenger were clicking away on their cell phones. Unbelievable.
In the back seat, Harley sleeps. Occasionally he’ll get agitated, climb into the front, and make himself comfortable on Angela’s lap. Every 300 hundred miles or so I remember to glance at the fuel gauge and say, “Holy cow! We need a gas station!” Angela loves that. With this routine, we are happy driving in our truck camper all day long.
Above: Highway 1 in northern California
Speaking of driving our truck camper, we have discovered many favorite roads to drive a truck camper over the years. Ironically, two are named Route 1; California State Route 1 (aka Pacific Coast Highway), and Florida’s Route 1 (aka Overseas Highway) to Key West. We have driven both Route 1 roads several times and hope to drive them many more times before our truck camping days are over. Both are ocean site sensory feasts that deserve a prominent place on your truck camping bucket list.
Above: The Million Dollar Highway in Colorado
Another all-time favorite truck camping road is the Million Dollar Highway, a spectacular section of the San Juan Skyway that runs from Silverton to Ouray, Colorado. This winding road is at times heart stopping with its guardrail-free drop offs, but nothing compared to my all-time, number one most favorite truck camping road – ever.
Drum roll please…
My favorite truck camping road of all time is a section of Utah State Route 261 called the Moki Dugway. Built in 1958 by mining company, Texas Zinc, the steep twisting unpaved road was literally carved out ascending red rock to haul uranium ore.
For folks that don’t think this road is potentially dangerous, there are literally rusted out car and truck carcasses at the bottom of several of the turns and switchbacks. That said, keep your hand on the wheel (no texting) and keep your eyes on the road (no driving selfies either) and you will survive this incredible and unique roadway. To make the video, we literally went up and down the Moki Dugway three times to get the best take. Word on the street says we survived.
This week’s Question of the Week is, “What is your favorite truck camping road?”
To qualify as a favorite truck camping road, you need to have actually taken a truck camper on this road. If you have pictures of your adventure on your favorite truck camping road, please send them in with your response. We can’t wait to see your favorite truck camping roads ever, and hope to add them to our Google Map. Let’s drive.
This QOTW is now closed. TCM readers have some great recommendations. You can check these awesome road trips in the article, The 35 Best Truck Camping Roads Ever.