The campground cut from a historic fruit orchard is surrounded by redrock cliffs. Tents can be set up on grass instead of dirt. Save for the sound of the river and a few birds, it was quiet.
Then, right at 6 p.m., during a two-hour window when park rules allow generators, the guy in the big camper fired up the annoying motor, drowning out most of the other natural sounds. I had hoped the advent of $4-a-gallon gasoline would persuade people not to run these blights on the outdoor experience.
A few weeks later, the same thing happened at Flaming Gorge Reservoir's Mustang Ridge campground. Right at dusk, a family who no doubt can't live even for an evening without electricity fired up the generator and left it running until 10 p.m., when quiet time began.
When the owner finally turned off the god-awful noisemaker, we weren't the only ones in the campground who cheered and applauded.
Don't get me wrong. I love my outdoor gadgets, including the pair of solar-powered lighted water bottles I just purchased. But, if I were dictator for a day, I would ban generators from all public lands campgrounds or, at the least, segregate them into their own loop, as is the case at Bryce Canyon National Park.
Or, if campers simply can't live without all the conveniences of home, perhaps they ought to follow Brian Brawdy's example.
Brian is a former New York Police Department undercover investigator, a part-time freelance television journalist and a full-time outdoor adventurer who is currently trying to drive to 49 states in his Lance camper, a vehicle he brought to the recent Outdoor Retailer Summer Market in Salt Lake.
This is no gas-guzzling, noisy, generator-powered blight. Instead, Brawdy has tried to make it as environmentally friendly as possible, using biodiesel in the Ford pickup truck, solar and wind panels to generate electricity and a rain-collecting and water-purification system for water.
The solar and wind panels generate enough electricity to run all the gadgets Brian needs to do his job, including charging still and video camera batteries and running the refrigerator, a GPS unit, a weather radar station and satellite television.
The modified camper and truck cost about $110,000, which, though expensive, probably isn't much different in cost from many of the huge motorhomes that use generators or seek campgrounds with hookups.
Those who want to follow Brian's quest to take his eco-camper to 49 states can log on to www.wonderexplorebelieve.net.
Meanwhile, I can only hope he is starting a trend that will allow people to use electric generators only in emergencies and not as an annoying, noisy convenience that ruins the reason many of us enjoy camping.
wharton@ sltrib.com
