Dealing with dust in the desert

[Chris K]

Just got home from four days on the Colorado Plateau using a single wall trekking pole shelter. We camped on slickrock, hard-packed dirt and sand. On the hard-packed dirt night, we slept out using the tent as a groundsheet. This was perhaps a rookie mistake – every inch of the tent was covered in a fine dust, inside and out.

I can accept dirt and dust on packs, hiking clothing, stuff sacks and such. But things get more annoying, if not problematic, when sleep insulation or interior tent walls are covered in dust. And our trip had fair weather without stiff breezes that would have brought blowing dust and sand into the picture…

So, what are your strategies or techniques for keeping your shelter and sleep systems (relatively) dust-free?

Some things to possibly bring next time:

1. A groundcloth
2. A double-wall tent w/ solid inner
3. A light towel or something to wipe down dusty surfaces (sleeping bag shell, interior tent wall, etc.)
4. A more relaxed attitude toward dust

[Glen L]

We must have about 500 nights on the Colorado plateau. Usually a high pressure aligns with a low pressure system to create incredible high winds. My Tarptent Squall 2 would totally fill up with a quarter inch of silt covering everything. The only thing we found that prevented that was a 4 season tent designed to keep the snowy spinthrift out. It did the same for blowing silt and sand. No matter what we did the abrasive sand ruined all the zippers in time. The Plateau is worth it. We tried a bunch of tents. That old Hilleberg was the only one that worked supremely well. It held steady in 75 mph wind. Once I was setting it in high wind and a rogue gust bent two sections of pole before I could guy it completely out. The helpful woman at Hilleberg sent two replacement sections at no cost. It is a sandy environment that was lay down in the Jurassic that eventually petrified into slickrock from the endless quartz sand dunes.

[Jerry Adams]

I just hate it when it gets into my mouth

[nunatak]

Nothing to do – deal…

[Glen L]

“I just hate it when it gets into my mouth”

Lol

no fun when it gets into the cooking either. That’s another multi use for lids, not just keeping the food warm but more sand free.

[Nick Gatel]

I have lived in a desert for almost 50 years and have thousands of days worth of desert backpacking and camping. For the most part, I don’t notice the dust. After really windy trips, I just shake out my gear and put it away — basically to get rid of the sand — not dust.

I mostly sleep under the stars . . .

 

 

If I do use a shelter, it is usually a single wall.

 

Sand isn’t a concern . . .

 

These guys can be more problematic . . .

 

[Terran Terran]

They really do jump. Birds make nests in them.

In Colorado,It’s not the quartz sand. It’s the silt and the clay. Finer particles that stick.

[Chris K]

The desert people have spoken… roll with it, and try to avoid eating too much of it.

[Terran Terran]

Dry climate and static cling. I’m surprised we don’t all end up with silicosis.

As a kid living in the Colorado desert in California, I learned to walk backwards when the wind blew to keep sand out of my eyes.

[Glen L]

There isn’t much cholla up on this Colorado Plateau, mostly juniper/pinion woodland. We can have some wind down here in the Sonoran desert uplands but nothing like the shoulder season sustained winds of the Plateau. That stuff can bring in a storm overnight that is a thousand miles away. That’s why it’s harder to forecast weather up there. It’s a crazy place. Once it was sunny and warm down in the valleys but was blizzard conditions up in the Dixie, then warm and sunny as we descended back down the other side. It is easy to become addicted to that landscape.

[AK Granola]

Imagine the dust bowl – people died from inhaling it and getting pneumonia. At least you’re out there by choice?

[Terran Terran]

My dad was a young boy in Oklahoma during the dust bowl. After a stint in the marines (Iwo Jima), he went to Oklahoma State, after which he joined the newly formed Soil Conservation Service where he developed an expertise in desert soils. That’s why we lived in the desert. Because of the dust bowl.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

#4 and use a bivy to sleep under the stars in a relatively dust-free sack and a tarp in case of precipitation, wind or for just the feeling of having a little haven.

[JVD]

The young people I knew in wilderness therapy in the 4 Corners area called dust and grit “desert spice” and smiled.

[Author]

Posts