Bath and Shower Options While Camping

Getting dirty is a part of camping. Whether you are back packing, roughing it in a makeshift tent or enjoying the conveniences of the most luxurious motorhome, your outdoor activities will subject you to dust and dirt and sweat and eventually you'll look forward to a bath or shower. And it is more than just a personal luxury. It can be essential to your health and comfort, especially if you are stranded in the wilderness. It is also critical to ensure you are pleasant to be around!  How, when, and where you bathe will depend on your situation and the facilities available to you. If you are staying in a commercial campground they will probably have public showers available for your use. Some people are reluctant to use them due to modesty concerns or fear of exposure to germs. Both of these issues can be overcome. If your concern is modesty, monitor the shower usage by other campers and choose a time when usage is low. In most cases there will be individual dressing areas and shower stalls that usually provide adequate privacy. Usually they are NOT like the old community shower rooms in junior high school but will have individual stalls! As for germs, wear shower shoes or "flipflops" to avoid walking on possibly contaminated floors and avoiding pain from hot sidewalks and gravel pathways getting there and back. Portable wooden shower platforms can keep your feet off any shower floor you find suspicious.  They can also usually double as carrying case to transport your shower supplies back and forth between your camp site and the showers.  If you're really worried about contamination, wash your feet again when you get back to your tent or RV or wipe them with hand sanitizer or wet wipes.

Of course, if you're in a fully-equipped, self-contained RV, you have your own shower and don't have to worry about exposure -- visually or microbe-ally. You just need to make sure you have sufficient hot water. RV water heaters are small compared to residential units. That means you'll run out of hot water much faster. To avoid running out, limit how long you run you shower before you get in, running it just enough for the water to get warm. Then shut it off while you're soaping, scrubbing, and shampooing and turn it on again to rinse. This technique, sometimes known as a "Navy shower", will conserve hot water, reduce consumption of fresh water when dry camping, and minimize filling of holding tanks. A shutoff on the shower head makes it more convenient to conserve water and avoids dousing yourself with hot or cold spurts while you readjust the temperature if you have to turn off the main faucets.  Don't try to do too many showers one after the other. You'll quickly run out of hot water -- unless your RV is equipped with an "instant", on demand hot water heater. One way to make sure you don't run out of hot water when you're staying in a campground with showers is to take advantage of the camp showers and save your on board hot water for washing dishes and hands.  Unless you have an on demand water heater you will want to schedule showers in your RV at different times so you don't try to go back-to-back which is usually a sure way to run out of hot water before you're done.

Sun Showers are a convenient way to get a warm shower when you are tent camping, don't have a shower in your RV, or just want to conserve resources. These are black plastic bags with attached tubes fitted with shower heads. Fill the bag with water and leave it out in the sun for a few hours. Laying it on the hood of your car or truck on on the picnic table are good options. Avoid laying it on cool grass as it take longer to heat up enough to use. Laying it on hot pavement may speed warming. When it is warm enough (let a little water out of the shower head to test it or just feel the bag), hang the shower from a tree branch, an awning or canopy, or from a roof rack on your vehicle. In a pinch you could attach it to the top of a car door. You might have to stoop a little, but it would work. Some folks use the sun shower in their RV shower to conserve and control water use and reduce hot water demand. There are some nice accessories you can use with Sun Showers -- or with the outside showers that are now featured on many RVs. They include enclosures and portable shower platforms. The enclosures are simple tent-like structures about 3 feet square. Some are self-supporting, some need to be hung from a tree or other overhead support or attached to a vehicle. They usually don't have a roof or floor, just walls.  Make sure you know what kind you're buying to get the one that will work for you. Portable shower platforms are small wooden or plastic affairs that are usually hinged so they can be folded to half their size for transport and storage. These give you something to stand on so you're not standing in mud or potentially contaminated floors while showering. They are typically about 3" tall and perhaps a foot square when folded up, giving you a 1' x 2' platform when open. Soap-on-a-rope is handy too. There also are also soap boxes on ropes to keep your soap out of the dirt. Keep an eye on the Sunshower bag to be sure you don't use up all your water before you rinse off the soap!   They are usually opaque so you can't see the water level, but  you can judge how much is left by the shape of the bag.  Plan ahead and hang your towel where it will be convenient but won't get wet. If you're boondocking and really worried about running out of water, allocate a gallon jug of water per person for showers instead of using up the supply in your fresh water tank.

A simple alternative to a sun shower is to use your hydration pack (Cambelbak). The amount of water is limited so you'll have to be frugal. The bladder for your hydration pack is probably a light color or nearly clear so it won't absorb heat as well as a Sun Shower.    You'll have to remove the bite valve to get water to flow.  Also, don't fill your hydration pack with non-potable water just to take a shower. You don't want to contaminate your drinking water container.

Wet wipes can be used for quick clean ups and cat bathes. They are convenient and usually include an antibacterial agent to ensure good sanitation. Sometimes you can get generic wet wipes or baby wipes at dollar stores to make them affordable.  The ones that are individually wrapped are particularly convenient for tent camping and back packing.  You might want to tuck a couple in your fanny pack or Enduro jacket when off-roading so you can clean your hands before any snack or meal out on the trail.

Natural bathing opportunities. If you are tent camping, back packing, or don't have a shower in your RV, you will need to seek other opportunities for bathing or showering. If you are near a lake or stream you may be able to use that. However, keep in mind that many recreational waterways are also sources of drinking water. In some cases entering the water at all may be prohibited. If there are no such posted prohibitions, use common sense and minimize your pollution contribution. If entry is prohibited you may be able to carry a bucket of water a safe distance (usually plan on about 200')  from the shore to bathe with so runoff doesn't contaminate the source. Just rinsing off the accumulated dust and sweat is refreshing. If you must use soap, use a bio-degradable soap (available where ever camping supplies are sold) and in any case, minimize what you do use. For modesty and privacy you are not likely to choose a place within sight of other campers, but if you are bathing in a stream, avoid doing so upstream of where other campers might draw water for cooking or drinking or where they are swimming.  Chances are very good these days that just about any body of water near enough to civilization to be a convenient camping destination will be a drinking water source, perhaps even YOUR drinking water source.  Think about that before abusing lakes and streams.

Air showers. If you have no water for bathing, as might happen in a survival situation, take an "air shower" every day or two while back packing or in survival mode. Strip down as far as you comfortably can given climate and fellow campers, hang your clothes out to dry, and let the sun and air dry your body and your clothes for a couple of hours every day or two. Be sure to avoid sunburn! Exposure to sun and air gets rid of excess sweat and the UV rays from sunlight kill germs. An air shower may not be as satisfying and effective as a real H2O shower, but it is better than nothing and, in survival mode, may help keep you healthy until you can be rescued. You'll feel better putting on clothes that have been sun-dried and freshened by the breeze -- and probably more pleasant to be around.

Smoke showers are similar to air showers but you use the smoke from a smouldering campfire to help kill bacteria. Punky wood from rotten stumps usually makes quite a bit of smoke. Smoke from juniper or pine boughs might lend a pleasant fragrance that will be refreshing. Sagebrush smoke contains antibacterial agents and makes a good smoke shower. Sagebrush smells much better than most body odors.   Killing odor-causing bacteria does more than make you more pleasant to be around. It can help keep you healthier in a survival situation.

Cat baths. If water is scarce, you can take "cat baths", using wet wipes or a washcloth and a bowl or pan of water. You can take a cat bath just about anywhere: in your tent, in your RV, or in the bushes.  Cats hate water but are very fastidious about keeping themselves clean -- without a lot of water.  A cat mostly uses its own saliva and its paws for bathing but that doesn't work too well for humans.  You will want to use a bowl or pan of water and a washcloth. Anything you can do to keep you body clean will make you more comfortable and will help prevent illness and infection. For added comfort, use warm water, heated over a campfire or by the sun.  You might set a clean, empty gallon juice jug or a rinsed out 2-liter soda bottle out in the sun to get it warm to conserve propane as well as water.  You can use an empty milk jug but be sure to wash it out thoroughly so there is no residue to go sour.

Keep clean. You will feel better, look better, and your companions will be grateful!