Your sleeping bag choices

I feel like this point has been brushed over: you need a sleeping pad.

Fully aware of the need for a pad.  A double size pad seems hard to find.  Unless you guys know of any that I haven’t been able to find, I am probably going to look for a foam bed topper to fold up next time.  
It seems like using 2 would be uncomfortable when we’re trying to cuddle (I feel like one of us would get stuck in the crack between them).  

Gonna fly with that foam topper?

1/10

Lol.  Probably not.  That’s why we packed a fleece blanket this time, like I mentioned earlier.  Not a pad, but an extra layer.  

Between the 2 of us, 1 suitcase is for clothes, the other is camping gear.  Our carry-on’s are for other smaller items and my wife’s camera equipment. 
 Only so much camping gear can fit in the largest suitcase before you pay for oversized luggage.  When cost is a concern, $50 each way, plus a larger rental car plays a big part in what gets packed.  This was our first camping trip we flew for, so it was a learning curve.  

Suitcases might not be your best luggage option. I’m sure you could easily fit 2 peoples camping equipment (considering you upgrade to more packable gear) in a 60L backpack. If you did it right you could probably get most of the clothing in there too.
2 60L packs and you can bring climbing gear also.

What kind of tent can you get into a backpack?  Ours is so easy to setup.  Right now we have a 3 person Coleman  2 pole tent.  It sets up and breaks down in 10 minutes.  But the pole pieces are about 10”-12” long.  The whole tent in the bag is about 20”x5”  We could go down to a 2 person tent, but that wouldn’t really save that much room, would it?

I’ve had tents from REI, but they’ve all leaked like a sieve.  Our Coleman has held up for going on 6 years with no leaks 

My wife isn’t into backcountry backpacking.  Normally we do road trips near us (along the northeast coast down to VA) living out of our car and setting up camp in park campsites.  But we’ve decided to make a goal to hit up every National Park over the next few years, so that’ll include some flights out west.  My wife is a teacher, so that leaves spring break and summers.  I only have so much vacation time, so we need to plan time well.  No 3 day drives to only camp for 1, and drive 3 days back.  

Not too many local outdoors shops in the philly area.  REI is our most convenient choice without a 2 hour drive (as far as I have been able to find).  I know they aren’t the best for good backpacking info, so I try to ask around between online and friends at the gym to get an idea before doing any shopping.  

Neither of us makes much money, so we’ve been buying what we can over time.  That’s why I’m looking at sleeping bags now.  I think it should be my next purchase (with a pad of course :-P). Plus a better day pack (we only have 1 good one, other is a tough school bag that hold a ton and is comfortable).  If we have some extra cash, a lighter weight tent that stows smaller will also be on the list.  Just the idea of buying 2x $100+ sleeping bags is a lot to consider 

I think for your needs, a couple of bigass duffel bags would be better suited. REI makes some that are relatively cheap and durable. The airline could charge for overweight luggage, but I don't think they'd be subject to an oversize fee. Just try to keep them under 50 lbs.

If it is most important to save money, keep using the sleeping bags you have and buy some pads. Even the cheapest closed-cell foam will do a lot more than a blanket. But if you can afford to spring for something inflatable, you'll be a lot more comfortable. I'm a side-sleeper and very much value an inflatable pad.

Your question about connecting two pads together is a good one. I have used a couple long pieces of webbing, with only moderate success. I'm interested if anyone else has better ideas. There are some double-wide pads out there, Klymit makes some, available cheap on Amazon, I don't know whether they're quality or not.

Wenzel Grand 0 Degree is my go to for the desert....but it weighs 11.6 pounds ( I think it is the biggest bag on the market) ....Convenient for me since I live here. Never been cold in that thing. Plus it is like sleeping in a cozy flannel bed.

I swear by Enlightened Equipment Quilts + a good pad for anything else.  

Another thing is look into used gear. This website usually has stuff you’re looking for at a discounted price. eBay, Craigslist, local Facebook for sale pages. 

Eric Fjellanger is right about big, cheap duffel bags, and the REI duffels are a good deal for the money. Airlines do impose size limits on checked baggage, though, and any duffel over 120 liters is probably going to exceed the size limits (and it will be a bitch to carry when it's full).

Good sleeping pads will save you some money, but the fancy inflatable/self inflating ones can get expensive. If Wal-Mart still sells the cheap blue foam pads (Ensolite) then those offer a lot of warmth for the money. They're pretty bulky, though. Consider using them to line your duffel bag, instead of trying to roll them up.

The sleeping bags that people are recommending are all excellent bags, but any down bag is a little silly for car camping. Some of the better quality synthetic bags will compress quite a bit, without costing nearly as much as a decent down bag. They're still not cheap, though. The Marmot Trestles Elite series is a good example of this type of bag. Synthetic bags are a lot easier to clean than down, and they still insulate a little when they get wet.

You might want to consider spending a few more days in each park, instead of the "5 parks in 5 days" approach. Most of the western US parks have enough to offer to justify spending a few days or more, and you can save a bundle on gas that way. Also, it can get really hard to get a campsite in the more popular parks, and just standing in line for a campsite can eat up a big chunk of your vacation. Yosemite and Joshua Tree are two prime examples of this.

I know that a price of a good sleeping bag gives you a sticker shock, but if you have to replace that $40 bag after every 5 day trip... you should take that into account.

I bought my down bag over 20 years ago. Used if for backpacking before I got into climbing, flew with it many times, and use it as my go-to sleeping bag still. Sure, it is not as lofty and warm now as it was in it's brand-new days, but it is still great. Looking at my log, I spent 400+ days on the rock since I started keeping track on MP. If you consider the rest days, and non climbing trips with kids, and all the other stuff that is not logged, when the bag was in use... I'd say the bag cost is pennies per day, might be going into less than a penny, LOL.

Oh, and in case you didn't know, the mummy-style bags can also zip together. Just pay attention when you are buying the bags, and get one with the zipper on the left, and the other one with the zipper on the right. Get the same brand for both bags to guarantee compatibility, but even if the bags are not the same brand, the zipper size is pretty standard. My bag zips up with both of my husband's bags, and we got them well before we knew each other, and they are all different brands.

Personally, I generally travel with a single person tent, but there are a number of multi person tents which pack down small enough to fit into a 60L backpack. 
I prefer backpacks over duffels because they can double as cragpacks and are easier for me to maneuver in transit.
I wasn’t suggesting you use them for backcountry trips, I rarely go backpacking anymore but always use a pack designed for backpacking when I travel. Not everyone agrees with this method, but it works for me.
You have the somewhat unique situation of traveling by plane to go car camping so you have to take the restrictions of both into account. By upgrading some of your gear to more backcountry specific pieces you will be able to pack more into less space. Maybe go to an REI (just for research, not purchases), assemble a mock camp set up and see what kind of packs and/or duffels it fits in. This could give you an idea of which pieces you could start replacing in order to see space gains.It’s pretty amazing how much you can fit into not much space with the right gear and proper packing.

My girlfriend and I use a Feathered Friends Penguin (although the Flicker looks amazing!).  I researched it for weeks before dropping that kind of cash on a sleeping bag but honestly it's far and away the best outdoor gear I own.  You can zip it together for one person or use it as a quilt with liner when sleeping with two.  I have slept in 9 degrees in a tent with no problem at all, honestly I was a bit warm.  

When I was reasoning to myself why I should spend this much I thought of a few things.  One, my girlfriend will enjoy her time in the outdoors more if she has a good night sleep.  The quickest way to ruin a trip is to be up all night because of the cold, uncomfortable conditions and then it's just an uphill battle the rest of the time or you are packing up first thing in the morning and heading to the nearest diner.  Two, if she enjoys her time more, we will take more trips.  Those two reasons were good enough for me to buy the bag.  Also, the people at Feathered Friends are incredibly helpful and give detailed responses to questions I had when choosing the right bag.  I can't recommend that company enough.

Mark, we did spend 2 days in Zion.  But Since all of the parks are only a few hours from each other, there didn’t seem a reason to not hit them all up.  But I’d love to spend more time in both Zion and capital reef.  And my cousin lives minutes from Joshua tree, so when we go there, we’ll spend more time so he can show us around.  

I’m glad most mummy bags zip together.  That was something that seemed hard to find more info on.  Wasn’t sure if all mummy bags offered left and right zippers.  I’ll definitly hit up rei to see how the gear I’m interested fit into a large pack.  Carrying a big pack isn’t a big deal while car camping.  I’m a mule when it comes to carrying heavy gear around.  I’d just like to make the most of space, so tailoring my equipment to a backpacking setup will help a lot.   If that lets me get a pad in there, I’d love it

Baba Fats wrote:
I’m glad most mummy bags zip together.  That was something that seemed hard to find more info on.  Wasn’t sure if all mummy bags offered left and right zippers.  

Lots of mummy bags are being built in women's and men's versions, with different shapes and distribution of insulation for the two versions. Usually a particular model sleeping bag will put the zipper on one side for the men's version, and the other side for the women's version. 

Another question about stuff sacks, if you’ll indulge me...  of the bags I’ve looked at since the start of this thread, they mostly say the size of the stuff sack in the description.  But all of them are longer than my current bags after compressing.  Is that measurement the length of the sack included/needed, or the length after compressing?  

For example, the technical specs of the REI  magma 10 says that the stuff sacks 7.5”x15”.  Is the 15” before or after compressing it?  My current bags compress down to ~8x8”.  Much smaller than 15”.
Not that this bag is the one I’m looking to get, but just the last one I looked at and noticed the specs description

Stuff sacks and compression sacks are two different ways to stow your bag. The size advertised for the stuff sack is the size it will be with the bag filling it for the most part. Compression sacks allow you to stuff your bag, then compress much of the air out of the bag/sack and cinch it down with straps. These tend to be more compact once compressed than your sleeping bag would be otherwise.

So even though the sleeping bags are advertised with "stuff sacks', they can all be compressed to some extent.  And down compresses smaller than synthetic.  Should I then look for a compression sack the same size as the stuff sack, knowing that I will then synch it down smaller?

It all depends on your packing method. Sometimes people don't stuff their sleeping bags in a sack so it can just fill and take the form of whatever space is left in the backpack or suitcase. Sometimes people use a compression sack to get a bag packed as tight as possible to conserve space in the backpack or suitcase for other items.

Example: The stuff sack in this link ( seatosummitusa.com/product/…;o1=3&o2=3&o3=154-32) pretty much stays the size that you see in the photo, yes it'll compress if you pile something on top of it but it's still more or less that size with the bag in it.

The medium compression sack in this link ( seatosummitusa.com/product/…;o1=2&o2=2&o3=293-12) is 18 inches tall prior to being compressed but as you can see it compresses to about 6-8 inches tall. This is all dependent on how much fill your bag has and if it is down vs. synthetic of course.