For our first tent trip, our kids were 2.5 and 4. I had no idea if they would like it, so we went only for 3 nights to a fairly close camp (about an hour away). We all loved it, and have since camped at the same camp exclusively. Of course, that was only 2 years ago, so we've got some time to find other camps! You didn't mention what kind of vehicle you have other than a car. What kind of car? You may be hard pressed to pack all you need into a car. We have a station wagon with no rooftop carrier, and we barely fit all we needed for just the three nights. We did not take bikes or scooters or firewood or dog . (We had one at the time.) We did shop for the perishable once we got to the camp, so I was able to use the big cooler to pack other stuff. The biggest volume hoggers were the tent, cooler, food container, tool/utensil/misc container, sleeping bags, clothing bags, and dining fly. I tried to condense as much as I could in each of the containers, like packing only as much oatmeal or sugar or Captain Crunch in one Gladware container as we would use for three days. Condense condense condense!!! That was my mantra for the three days it took me to pack!! We packed every cubic inch of that vehicle. Under the seats, under the kid's feets, under my feet in the passenger side, between the kids, between me and my husband; we cozied some smaller items in with the spare tire and in every crevice we could find. It was a project! The next year, we broke down and took two vehicles so we could bring the bikes, and skip the shopping trip (it was SO expensive at that grocery store near the camp...duh!) This year, we have a new F150 truck, so we may be able to pare down to one vehicle again! We'll see! My husband kinda babies that truck and is hesitant to take it into the "wilderness" of the state park! mozy

Have a great time! Everyone should be happy with where they live! Utah! p.s. traded some wages to live here, though... I want to eventually travel up the coast and into BC. someday.... looks beautiful!

Like I would pack up my kid and send him off to China. I had an acquaintance about 15 yrs ago, her husband was a computer programmer. They were a very young naive couple with a 3 yr old. I really don't know what they were thinking. Was offered a job in China for a year with great pay and "good housing" provided. When they arrived the company took their passports and the "good" place to live had a hot plate, 1 sink w/cold water and 2 rooms, no furniture, dirt floor. When the husband informed them he no longer wanted the position they were not going to let him leave, spent hours yelling and threatening him and wife. They had to basically escape. Made their way to the American Embassy and they were helped out of the country. No I don't think I will take you up on your ideal offer.

I'm a little outside of Hood River. As soon as you get past Hood River heading East is when Oregon becomes more desert and colder. I'm zone 7a but with the massive wind in winter it might as well be zone 5 lol. The wind will blow my newer bamboo to the ground for a month straight sometimes with maybe a day or two of calm. It's nuts out here. Although this year was very mild, not very cold or windy. We get less than 14 inches of rain a year. And summer can be 100 degrees full sun for 3 months straight (and wind to boot), got up to 106 degrees last summer. The coldest on record was in 1950 when it got to -25 f. Yikes. Hope I never see that in my life time. Vivax is not quite as hardy. And you will get more leaf burn and maybe some culm death in bad winters (well in your area the culms should be fine). But it's still pretty tough for bamboo. And huge. Although it has thin walls, in heavy wind and ice storms or heavy snow they will break under the load, they say it sounds like shotguns going off when those big ones break (one guy back east said his entire Vivax grove was almost decimated from the ice storm). a total mess. I have some Vivax H.Inversa which is more rare, but I chose to leave it in pots and bring it in for winter for those very reasons. As much as I'd love to because it's an awesome huge bamboo, I don't think it's a good idea for me to put it in the ground. You might be ok where you are at though. Since you have it, give it a shot and see how it fares. You'll probably have to water it more though than the other ones I recommended.