It’s called the Hoh Rainforest. It’s located on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, it’s located within Olympic National Park, and it’s one of the more remote locations within the continental United States. Sure, you can do better if you really want to get away from everybody…there is plenty of wide-open wilderness along the Salmon River in Idaho…but the almost unrealistic greenery that can be found within the Hoh Rainforest suits this 1977 Dodge van perfectly. I already see it parked in a openening underneath the Douglas-fir, the Sitka spruce and the hemlocks, the salal bushes and the blackberry vines. In a world that won’t shut up now more than ever, the silence of the rainforest is calling.
And why a massive 1970s Dodge van? Because there so much room inside of this big verdant brick that even if you forgot your tent and camping supplies, you’l be fine. The Maxiwagon is the super-stretch Sportsman and somehow this 318 powered machine managed to escape the 1970s relatively unscathed, save for rearmost side window screens and a set of buckshot wheels on BFG T/As. After that, it’s quite literally minty fresh. You and a loved one can each pick a bench seat to call your bed, and the back space behind the benches can hold two weeks of supplies, easily…which you might want to get, since you’re still two weeks away from salmon berries being edible, let alone any of the other wild treats.
Go on a trip, get lost for a bit, and with any luck the world will have pulled it’s collective head out of the dark place by the time you need to restock. That’s what van life is really all about. No naked lady and dragon murals, no DNA depository.
So much want! We saw a maxi shell at pull-a-part in Nashville a few years ago, it was just the shell, but it was clean, straight, and totally rust free. It was also a raised roof conversion, and we wanted it SO bad! I’d like to find one and move the rear wheels back about a foot or so. It’d be a keeper then, for sure.