With a little prep work, eating Paleo while camping can be super easy. Plus it’s not even a requirement to go camping to make this Paleo Sub recipe! :)
Although we’re not huge fans of camping, Jeff & I enjoyed a full 48 hours “off the grid” while hiking and camping in Glacier National Park outside of Missoula, Montana. Here’s a little recap of one of our hikes and the foods we ate while we were there.
Jake & Amanda at Glacier National Park
We started our little trip with a stop at one of the three Missoula Farmer’s Market’s that run on Saturday mornings. Having already prepared all our food for the weekend, I didn’t want to pick up anything that would go bad but I just couldn’t pass up the locally grown giant bag of Rainier cherries. I ate a few cherries then added them to our cooler bag and we were off. Thankfully my sister Amanda’s boyfriend, Jake, did all the driving so when we magically arrived after my 3 hour nap, it was as if I was transported there.
Jeff & I at Glacier National Park
The weather was absolutely perfect. Full sun, blue skies, a few puffy clouds, crystal clear water and a few snow capped mountains in the distance. We stopped to take the two shots above (since everyone who comes to visit Amanda in Missoula stops and gets a shot taken on the dock). We then continued our trek toward the visitor center and Going-to-the Sun Road. We had to stop and take a few more pics before we got there because the waterfalls and views were just gorgeous.
Before we left Missoula, Amanda and I went shopping and prepared the food for all our meals. Amanda put together the meals for our dinner and breakfast and I hard boiled some eggs and made our lunches.
Amanda’s Paleo Campfire Pot Roast included chopped carrots, white potatoes, garlic, fresh thyme sprigs, cubed beef, onion, salt and pepper in a red wine marinade that was all added to a gallon size zip lock. We used heavy duty foil to create individual pot roast pockets to cook our dinner over the campfire once we arrived at our campsite.
For breakfast Amanda also prepared chopped bell peppers, garlic & onions before we left, and packed them with olive oil in a zip lock bag. We cooked that with the leftover veggies from dinner together in a cast iron skillet on a camp stove.
Of course we also brought along a package of locally sourced peppered bacon to cook in the skillet and we ate slices of avocado on the bacon strips along with the hard boiled eggs and skillet veggies.
A seriously full meal before we went out for a full day of hiking to Iceberg Lake.
I prepared a different version of my Paleo subs before we left. Jeff & I ate them for lunch on both Saturday and Sunday. While we were making them I decided to post a Vine video, so here’s a quick recap of how I made them this time around.
How To Make Paleo Subs
Pack A Lunch and Hike Glacier National Park
I wrapped the subs in parchment paper, bound each one with a rubber band and stored them in a sandwich zip lock bag so the juices wouldn’t leak while we were out on our hike.
When we first arrived at the visitor center we sat down to eat our Paleo subs. Then we went on our first hike on Hidden Lake Trail at Logan Pass. That’s where this mountain goat, who was obviously used to being near people, decided to mosey on past us and walk down the trail just like the rest of us.
The photo above of Hidden Lake was the view, once we got as far as we could go. Someone with binoculars spotted a bear down near the lake and that’s why the rest of the trail was blocked off.
The part you can’t see in any of these photos so far is the terrain we traveled on to get to Hidden Lake. At first it was rocks and grass but the higher up you got the more puddles, ice and snow covered the ground. Amanda warned me to pack hiking boots but it’s not like we go hiking everyday so the shoes I brought with me I deemed appropriate footwear.
You see, going up the mountain I did just fine but coming back down without any type of traction on the bottom of my shoes, that was something else altogether. The ground was so steep I didn’t see how I would be able to walk down the trail without falling so I took Amanda’s jacket, tied it around my waist, waited for everyone to go down before me and get to the bottom and I used Amanda’s jacket as a cushion to sled down the trail. It worked down the fairly short, but steep, first part so I decided to take it all the way to the bottom.
I walked across the flat land while Jeff, Jake & Amanda hiked down the mountain. It worked out perfectly and as I was sledding down the mountain I got a bunch of cheers from a few people who had done it right before me. :)
Once we got back to the car we drove up Going-to-the-Sun Road, a part of Glacier National Park that’s only open a few days out of the year. We set up our camp, made dinner and sat by the campfire to relax. The next day after we ate breakfast & packed up our camp site we then drove to another area of Glacier and hiked to Iceberg Lake. I’ve got more photos from Iceberg Lake, but I’ll share those some other time.
Are you a regular camper? Are your meals any different from what we ate while in Glacier National Park? Have you been to Glacier and were you able to drive on Going-to-the-Sun Road? Let me know.
