Our post-pandemic world has resulted in an explosion in interest in the outdoors, including camping. This has helped many destinations that suffered during the dog days of COVID, but it’s requiring travelers to plan every detail of adventures — often leaving no room for spontaneous and organic travel experiences.

The mere thought of living out of a tent or sleeping on the ground leaves many with a stiff neck and sore back. Then finding reservations and detailed planning takes hours of research plus the stress of finding the perfect destination for the precious PTO days you get each year. Yet, if you are open to interesting opportunities as they present themselves, there are ways to have the best of both worlds. 

#1 Pro Tip

The #1 pro tip for spontaneous travel: Don’t focus on the where, focus on the when. Focus on opportunity and timing versus detailed pre-planning. You have no shot at finding a campsite in Colorado on a Friday in late July showing up with no reservations. However, if you roll in on Sunday through Wednesday, your chances increase exponentially. If you’re looking for a truly off-the-grid experience, there are more than 8.3 million acres of public land in Colorado to explore. Dispersed camping on these lands requires no advanced reservations and in many cases no fees. It does require an appetite for adventure, though, and a 4-wheel drive doesn’t hurt.

Chasing Freedom in a Mantis

There are many options for this type of camping lifestyle.

One that stands out is the Mantis, a trailer made by TAXA Outdoors, which makes campers designed for the road less traveled. The Mantis provides the freedom that comes with the highly mobile flexibility of tent camping while enjoying creature comforts of home like hot and cold water, electricity, toilet, kitchen, a mobile energy source with solar panels, and temperature control with a built-in heater and air conditioner.  The Mantis has a space-saving design with a surprising amount of storage and sleeps 3 adults comfortably (or 3 adults and a child).

NASA-Inspired to Maximize Space

The Mantis is the largest camper in TAXA’s fleet and is designed to fit in a standard garage based on height, length and width.  Garage parking saves storage costs and keeps your camper in pristine condition.

In total, TAXA Outdoors offers a line of 4 campers that help adventure-focused campers get off the grid. The Taxa Outdoors designer and owner originally designed living quarters for NASA and he takes that knowledge of efficiency and maximizing space to the Mantis and all the campers in the TAXA fleet.

Colorado Camping

We camped at the Half Moon campground in Colorado’s Holy Cross Wilderness Area. There were only 8 spots in this campground, we rolled in on a Sunday afternoon and picked up one of the two remaining open campsites. We were the only camper in the campground and received many glances as to how we pulled a camper 40 minutes on a forestry road.  

Points To Consider

If you are looking for a traditional RV experience, then the Mantis may not be the trailer for you, but if you’re looking for a highly mobile, easy-to-pull trailer with off-road capabilities, the Mantis may be the right trailer for you. Proceed with caution when taking the Mantis on Jeep roads or 4×4 roads to make sure the clearance is high enough for big dips and drainage crossings.

If you’re looking for a sense of adventure that can only be quenched by the mountains and backcountry living, then you should take a look at the Mantis by TAXA Outdoors to find out if it’s the camper for you. 

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Cover photo courtesy TAXA Outdoors

Doug Flatt is the publisher of Texas Lifestyle Magazine. When not running small businesses you can find him on a mountain bike or a body of water with a fly rod in hand.